First, the trend toward ”buy local”, the carbon footprint, is prevalent in Canada. One of the most interesting things is that despite what's come as a result of the recession, the consumer is still looking at local product as a good product. We have very savvy consumers in Canada, and they are looking at health and wellness. And an interesting corollary to that is that consumers are buying less of a product but ensuring it's a healthy product. So it's an interesting change from previous recessions.
The distribution systems for the major distributors are very well defined and they do move through central warehouse systems. Having said that, there are several things you can do. First, in Toronto we have something called the terminal. Product comes into the terminal--and you may be familiar with that, sir, I'm not sure where you're from--from all over the world, but it comes in particularly from Ontario. Every day everybody, including the major corporate chains, goes down there and buys that product. That fresh product is in their stores later on that day.
We only have one terminal in Canada, Mr. Chair. It wouldn't be a bad thing to look at whether we need a terminal in Montreal and a similar terminal in Vancouver. We could easily do that kind of thing, and that does two things. It helps the farmer and it also helps the independent grocer and the food service group differentiate themselves from all others. It's very important, and I'd consider that.
I'd like to come back to something we talked about the last time we were here. It was a different committee composition then, and for some of you, your eyes will glaze over when I talk about this.
The franchise agreements that the major players have in place have a fidelity clause in them that ensures the majority of product must be bought through wholesale. That's why, when the local farmer comes to the store with his corn, the store says it can't buy it because he's going to have to go to its franchise or sell it through that company. If he's only allowed to buy 5% outside the fidelity agreement, it's not very much, because you get shorted over the winter and you have to buy milk here or whatever and it goes away very quickly.
Last year, when the mania for “buy local” became very hot, you saw even the major players in Canada say they were into “buy local” now. That was pretty interesting. You saw them back off on those fidelity agreements. You need to make sure that back-off is permanent. They've done that in the province of Quebec. It is very strong on buying local, but that's something we need to encourage right across the country, because it's very healthy and it's good for the local farmer and it's good for the local independent. It is. That's what I would do.