Lawyers in Canada say jitters over increased interest rates as well as more mundane factors, such as people taking actual summer holidays, are the reasons why M&A and insolvency activity is sluggish in Canada at the moment. But the activity is likely to pick up in September.

The white-hot pace of M&A activity in 2021 bled over into the first quarter of this year, but activity has dropped off in the second quarter, to what practitioners are saying is a more normal, rather than low, level.