Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question.
I think this bill attacks a number of really important aspects related to affordability and competition in the grocery sector. There's obviously a lot of general application, so it will apply in all sectors, but these measures were included, in part, because of their particular salience for the grocery sector.
One is that it makes transparent information and recommendations about the nature of the market so as to help understand its dynamism and potentially make recommendations about its overall structure. By allowing market study powers to actually extend to the full information of corporations, it allows for that kind of transparency to potentially raise issues and bring to light particular aspects of the marketplace. I think that helps other competitors, but it also helps governments and other regulators that have been helped by market studies in the past.
Second, removing the efficiencies defence would essentially not allow for any further mergers that are premised on the notion that there are going to be future benefits for Canadians that potentially are okay, because they are essentially wiped out by the significant lessening of competition that would occur for Canadians. Obviously, that's only on a prospective basis for new mergers. However, I think it sets the tone in terms of the overall context for how consolidation would potentially look on a go-forward basis.
That also needs to be complemented by what's in the fall economic statement, which I'm not here to talk about today, but obviously it makes some additional changes on—