Thank you, Mr. Chair and other members of the committee, for the opportunity to provide a retail perspective on Canada's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Retail Council of Canada, we represent small, medium and large retail businesses, with a presence in every community across the country. Our members' sales represent over 70% of the retail industry by volume. As the voice of retail since 1962, we proudly represent more than 45,000 storefronts in all formats, including department, specialty, discount, independent retailers, online merchants, and most importantly in this context, grocery retailers.
Retail employs over two million Canadians, making ours the largest private-sector employer in the country. Retail is by no means unique in being severely challenged by COVID-19. We know that this committee is looking at the severe combination of challenges facing Canadian food processors, producers, importers, freight and transportation operators. Even though grocery retailers have continued operations in this environment, they face a multitude of operational challenges. These include human resource and in-store security issues, sourcing of personal protective equipment, rapid adaptation of workplaces to emerging rules from health authorities, major increases in their cost structure, challenges with freight and shipping, and lastly, and importantly in this context, challenges with supply chains.
I would like to focus my attention on this last point.
The COVID-19 outbreak sent unprecedented shock waves through Canada's food supply system. We've seen the demand for food drop considerably in restaurants, hotels and institutions such as schools. On the other hand, we've seen a significant increase in demand at the retail level, since Canadians are now staying and eating at home.
The Retail Council of Canada has worked closely with groups of Canadian producers, processors and importers throughout the crisis to adapt to changing consumer behaviours and demands. We acknowledge and applaud the work accomplished by the Government of Canada to date. However, more work must be done to ensure that Canada can address the new challenges that our food supply is facing and will face as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the medium and long term.
The $252 million emergency assistance program for farmers and food processors announced last Tuesday is a step in the right direction. However, as we seek to understand the longer-term effects of the epidemic on the entire supply chain, the Government of Canada must continue to work and to support all components of the food chain. These include the producers, food processors, importers, carriers and retailers.
Furthermore, it is critical that the Government of Canada put in place proactive measures to allow for greater sourcing flexibility as the situation with COVID-19 continues to evolve at a rapid pace. We understand that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is working on easing restrictions on a temporary basis for retailers operating in Canada to allow them to sell meat in a province other than the one it is certified in, and for meat and other foods produced and labelled for other markets such as the United States and other countries to be sold in Canada.
We are highly supportive of these measures and urge the Government of Canada to adopt them immediately on a proactive and temporary basis rather than trying to address potential supply chain disruptions after they have already occurred. Adopting these measures on a proactive basis would help secure Canada's food supply now and throughout the COVID-19 crisis and would minimize costs throughout the supply chain and, ultimately, minimize disruptions and impacts on food affordability to consumers in these challenging times.
Finally, I'd like to personally thank Canadian farmers, food processors, retailers and retail employees who continue to keep Canadians fed and well throughout the COVID-19 outbreak.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee.
I would be happy to take your questions.