Finance committee  As a second-generation broker, it was tough to convince my parents to even want to sell to us, for a multitude of reasons. It was primarily because they could sell to a third party for significantly more money. Ultimately, as I said in my opening remarks, they wanted to continue to add to and support the community that they built their business in.

Finance committee  I think we're already seeing it happen, particularly in the last couple of years. We're seeing a lot of large consolidations of small brokerages that are selling to large corporations, as I mentioned in my comments, either backed by private equity firms or by insurance carriers or whatnot.

Finance committee  Thank you, Peter. Thank you to the committee members for the invitation to speak today. I am here to speak in support of Bill C-208 because of my experience purchasing the family business from my parents. When my parents decided to sell their business, they received an offer from a large direct writer.