Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, Competition Bureau, to this committee.
For those listening at home, I always think of the Competition Bureau as being like the sheriff's office. We have the sheriff, and then today we have the deputy. It's nice to have you at committee here today, sir.
I want to start by focusing on mergers and acquisitions. Your grocery study report is very well done, by the way. One glaring point is that in 1986 we had eight Canadian-owned grocery chains, whereas in 2024 we have three that have 80% and two American ones that have entered the market since 1986. We have Walmart and Costco, which each have around 10%.
During your time with the bureau, you always act with the laws and powers that you're given to look at these mergers and acquisitions. When we look over the last eight years, we see that there were three in particular that you reviewed. One was Metro's purchase of Jean Coutu. Then we had Sobeys, which acquired both Farm Boy and Longo's. Did you approve, or make a recommendation to approve, those mergers for each one of those that you looked at?