First off, thank you for asking your question in French. I am delighted to be able to speak with committee members in French.
The first amendment proposed in Bill C‑56 pertains to market studies, which will provide more transparency and help the Competition Bureau better understand the market dynamics.
The bureau's study on the retail grocery industry across the country is the most recent example of how that change comes into play. The study revealed a number of deficiencies, and that is why your fellow members on the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food recommended that the Competition Bureau be given enhanced powers.
One of the problems your fellow members flagged was how difficult it was to understand the market dynamics without all the information. That is a deficiency today. We have a regulator that doesn't have all the tools it needs to compel information and evidence, so it can understand the dynamics of the market. To understand anticompetitive practices, you first have to understand the dynamics of the market.
I'll give you an example. When I spoke with executives at U.S. grocers who were interested in entering the Canadian market, I learned that one of the barriers they faced was vertical collaboration between suppliers and customers in the form of agreements. As I was telling Mr. Ste‑Marie, something that happens a lot in mall settings, especially in rural and remote areas, is that the mall has only one major grocery store. Leases contain non-compete clauses that prevent competitors from opening within several kilometres of the area.
If a wholesale-style retailer decides to leave the mall, which does happen, it creates a food desert. In other words, you end up with no grocery store within several kilometres, because the non-compete clauses have deterred new players from entering the market over the years.
When we met with independent grocers across the country—