TORONTO—Canadian mergers and acquisitions (M&A) fell to a nine-year low in 2020 as the pandemic put brakes on companies’ growth strategies, but bankers expect the pickup in deal-making in the fourth quarter to revive activity this year. The arrival of multiple COVID-19 vaccines in 2021 are expected to improve public confidence in an economic recovery and revive deal-making, say bankers. Market stability and continued access to capital that led to a resurgence in transactions in the second half of the year is expected to continue. Over $158.7 billion worth of M&A deals were announced in 2020, making it the slowest year since 2011, compared with $234 billion in the previous year, data from Refinitiv showed. David Savard, head of M&A at National Bank Financial, said after COVID-19 put everything on pause, the focus shifted to restructuring transactions. “There were a few others that were in the pipeline that ended up …