Finance committee  I think that from a straight competition perspective, it hinders competition, requiring the stress test and therefore making people stick to the institution where they have their mortgage now, even in a situation, as we pointed out in our submission, of a straight switch. Everything remains the same, effectively.

Finance committee  What I can tell you is that it's public that we have received what we call “section 9 applications” with respect to that.

Finance committee  Yes. Certainly there has been one financial institution. With these section 9 applications, any six residents of Canada over 18 can make a complaint about an alleged violation of our laws, and we will go forward and investigate—

Finance committee  Thank you for that question. As I said earlier, we are recommending further study on expanding it to include business general claims, environmental claims or brand general environmental claims. In terms of the specific recommendations that this committee has received with respect to greenwashing, it's probably best if we don't take a particular position.

Finance committee  I guess I would say that I don't think it's appropriate to take a position on that.

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. I'll answer in English again, if I may. As we point out in our submission to this committee, the issue of greenwashing is a very significant issue on which the bureau has multiple, ongoing investigations. We've brought cases in the past. For example, we fined Keurig $3 million for false or misleading claims about the recyclability of its pods.

Finance committee  Thank you. I'll ask Mr. Durocher to respond. Mr. Durocher led our market study into competition in the grocery retail sector and is an internal expert on these issues.

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. If I may, I'll answer in English, because it's quite technical.

Finance committee  Thank you, sir. The question, as I understand it, is the following: Would it be better to have a stand-alone act that just looks at the Competition Act? I suppose it's always better when you can focus on one particular topic, but let's not let perfection get in the way of momentum.

Finance committee  Absolutely. This is something I've been talking about publicly for several years now. We need a whole-of-government approach to competition in Canada. We needed it years ago. It's overdue. It's very important for driving productivity in the Canadian economy. There's the Australian example of the Productivity Commission in the 1990s, which took a whole-of-government look at regulations and laws that hindered competition across the economy.

Finance committee  What I can say is that the amendments we saw to Bill C-19 and Bill C-56, and the amendments that are proposed to Bill C-59, are significant changes to Canada's competition laws. They are generational, in fact. They make positive changes in multiple different ways. With them, Canada is catching up to the rest of the world.

Finance committee  I apologize. I didn't hear that question and answer portion. I assume it was Professor Quaid who said our structure wasn't....

Finance committee  Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for the invitation to appear before you today. My name is Matthew Boswell and I am the commissioner of the Competition Bureau. Joining me today are my colleagues Jeanne Pratt, senior deputy commissioner of the mergers and monopolistic practices branch, and Anthony Durocher, deputy commissioner of the competition promotion branch.

Finance committee  No, I don't believe that happened. I believe it was part of budget 2022 and flowed from there.

Finance committee  Good evening, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for the invitation to appear before you this evening. My name is Matthew Boswell. As you've heard, I am the commissioner of competition for Canada. Joining me is my amazing colleague Anthony Durocher, the deputy commissioner responsible for competition promotion.