Thank you.
Thank you to you and those hard-working 450 folks who do that work.
I just want to ask a couple of questions about the new study you've initiated on financing for small and medium-sized enterprises. There's not a lot of current data on this phenomenon. Industry Canada does a study every two years, which you refer to in your framing paper. It notes, “SMEs appear to have received less new credit, while larger businesses received more. For example, in the second half of 2023, the number of new loans to small businesses dropped by 19%, whereas larger businesses have seen a rise of 14.4%.”
I understand that, as you mentioned, this study is focusing on term loans. What kinds of sources of data are available to the Competition Bureau that will help inform this study?