Labour  Mr. Speaker, everyone wants to avoid a shutdown at Canada's two biggest railways, and rail workers deserve the time needed to negotiate a fair deal. However, CP and CN seem to be trying to orchestrate a simultaneous work stoppage in order to force the workers' hand. Now, the union has suggested staggering the negotiations in order to minimize the impacts.

Air Transportation  Mr. Speaker, air passengers who have been grossly mistreated by the big airlines are having to wait years to have their complaints heard. The backlog of complaints is over 70,000 right now. We just learned of a couple from British Columbia who finally received compensation, only to have Air Canada turn around and sue them.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives continue to pluck away on this one-string banjo about the carbon price and its effect on what they say is the price of everything. There is a small impact. People have dug into these numbers and there is actual evidence as to the impact of the carbon pricing on things such as food.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I agree wholeheartedly with my friend from Saanich—Gulf Islands. Some of these factors are unavoidable unless we change our food system and change the supply chain to localize it and make it more resilient. We are going to see the impacts of extreme weather around the world drive up the price of food.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, while the numbers I have show that France has seen a 21% increase in food prices in just two years, in Canada we have seen food price inflation of more than 20% in three years. Maybe there is a slight difference there, but what we are talking about is unreasonable food price inflation.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise this afternoon and speak to the motion brought forward by my colleague from Cowichan—Malahat—Langford regarding food prices. The motion calls for something rather simple. It calls on the Prime Minister and the government to force the biggest grocery chains in this country to lower food prices or face consequences.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, nine months ago, the Prime Minister told the big grocery retailers that they had to stabilize prices or they were going to face consequences, such as taxation. It has been nine months, yet the result has been nothing. In France, where people are also suffering from massive food price inflation, the government managed to broker a deal with 75 of the biggest food companies that agreed to lower their prices, not stabilize them but lower them.

Committees of the House  Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Milton mentioned some of the very real drivers of food price inflation, such as crop failures because of extreme weather, supply chain disruptions and international conflict. However, what we have seen is that, after some of those issues have resolved, after the supply chain starts moving again or the extreme weather subsides and the crops start growing again, the prices do not go down.

Committees of the House  Mr. Speaker, the member for Peterborough—Kawartha continues the Conservative thesis that the carbon tax is the primary driving factor behind the skyrocketing food prices we have seen. However, the numbers have actually been crunched, and it increases prices by a tiny amount. Trevor Tombe at the University of Calgary found that the carbon tax increases food prices by 0.3%.

Committees of the House  Mr. Speaker, I was just reading that in France, the government was able to force the 75 largest food companies to substantially drop their prices in the face of an unaffordability crisis like the one that we are facing here in Canada. However, what we have seen here is the government really going, cap in hand, to the big grocery chains and asking them, not even to reduce their prices, but just to stabilize them, which, frankly, the CEOs of these big corporations have laughed at.

Committees of the House  Madam Speaker, the issue of the report is one that I believe we will be debating again soon. The challenge of exorbitant food prices is truly an international challenge. I was reading that in France the finance minister managed to secure—

Committees of the House  Madam Speaker, it was my hand on the desk. I was reading that in France the finance minister managed to secure an agreement from 75 of the top food companies to lower their prices significantly, but here in Canada, the Prime Minister has not even managed to get the big grocery retailers to sign on to a voluntary code of conduct that would not actually lower food prices.

Pharmacare Act  Madam Speaker, the member for Regina—Lewvan was quite adamant that health care delivery is the purview of the provinces. I think that when he reads the bill, Bill C-64, he will be delighted to find that, in the pharmacare proposal that we are debating today, the delivery of pharmacare is delivered by the provinces.

Pharmacare Act  Madam Speaker, I have a good deal of respect for the member for Abbotsford, so it is disappointing to hear he does not support some of the core tenets of universal health care in Canada. Of course health care is a shared jurisdiction. Health care delivery is the responsibility of the provinces, but setting national standards and providing funding for health care has always been the purview of the federal government.

Pharmacare Act  Madam Speaker, the member for Kingston and the Islands in his speech observed a unique Conservative critique that we have heard emerge. The Conservatives criticize policies as not being good enough, and then they vote against them entirely. If pharmacare is not perfect, the answer, in their minds, is no pharmacare whatsoever.