Yes. Thank you.
If it's all right with you, I'll respond in English.
Recently, in a submission by the bureau to the ministry of finance called “Proposals to Strengthen Canada's Financial Sector”, in September, we actually recommended the repeal of paragraph 94(b) of the Competition Act. Paragraph 94(b) is a unique statutory override that allows the Minister of Finance to authorize an anti-competitive merger for public interest reasons. This override was established in 1986 and reflects an earlier perspective that anti-competitive mergers may need to be tolerated in the Canadian banking sector for financial stability reasons. However, we're of the view that concentration and consolidation could actually intensify systemic risks and raise the cost and complexity of resolution in a crisis if you have increased concentration.
We believe this provision in the Competition Act unnecessarily subordinates the bureau's role in reviewing major bank mergers, and that there are other avenues that allow the Minister of Finance to review those bank mergers and allow them to proceed or prevent them, for prudential reasons, for example.
That is a recommendation we hadn't made in the past, but these public interest overrides are very rare internationally. Given the other safeguards that exist in other regulated sectors as well, we don't believe it's necessary to have these public interest overrides on anti-competitive mergers in finance or in transportation. They both exist.