Aiming to satisfy both Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne and the Competition Bureau that Quebecor will be a fierce fourth national wireless carrier if it buys Shaw’s discount mobile-phone division, Rogers touted Quebecor as having “a strong operational track record, a history of competing vigorously and successfully in telecommunications services … and significant financial and spectrum resources.” (The Logic)

Talking point: What happens to Freedom is the sticking point as Rogers seeks to buy its western-based rival Shaw for $26 billion. Rogers is on a clock: the tribunal has scheduled multiple weeks of hearings to start in November but the bulk of Rogers’s financing for the Shaw deal expires at the end of December. If the deal’s not done by then, filings reveal Rogers would have to return nearly $12 billion it borrowed, plus a one per cent premium. Those loans (at rates as low as 2.95 per cent) were booked in March, when the Bank of Canada’s overnight rate was 0.5 per cent. Now interest rates are higher and still climbing, inflation remains high and people are talking about the possibility of a recession. If Rogers needs to start over, it would be seeking to borrow in a markedly different market.