I thank the member for his question.
The removal of the efficiencies defence from the Competition Act, as I think was said earlier by several other witnesses, is forward-looking and wouldn't apply to mergers that were previously notified to the bureau. We examined RBC-HSBC in the context of the Minister of Finance's public interest review of that merger. What's important to point out is that we concluded it would not result in a substantial lessening of competition. Efficiencies did not play a role in our conclusion in that case.
Even if there were some retroactive application of the repeal of the efficiencies defence, it wouldn't impact our assessment of the RBC-HSBC merger. We found there was no substantial lessening or prevention of competition as a result. We wouldn't be able to go back in any event. Even if we could, we wouldn't.
I hope that answers your question.