Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to all of our witnesses for appearing today.
I'd like to start with you, Mr. St-Laurent.
I was looking through Empire's publicly available records. In the last prepandemic year, 2019, your company announced net profits of $387.3 million. In 2021, that jumped up quite significantly to $701.5 million. This year, it's projected to be $745.8 million. With all of the pressures of the supply chain, the increased costs, your company has still managed to approximately double its net profits.
You did say in your opening statement that your company is working on all available ways to address cost issues. I'm just trying to fit that statement within the context of your net profits going up by this considerable margin. Are you really trying to use all available ways? If your net profits are going up in such a significant way, is there not a way to redirect those profits to try to ease some of the pain that so many consumers are feeling right now?