Agriculture Committee on Feb. 16th, 2021

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Okay.

You talked earlier about labour, small processors and mechanization, which are interrelated.

You want to see smaller processors, perhaps to complement activities. At the same time, the need for innovation and modernization is often mentioned. Can those two things really be reconciled?

It's difficult to invest in smaller locations. Could a large company like yours have smaller locations in different places?

[Richard Davies]

Of course, butchering pigs is quite complex. So the task could be segmented.

In some cases, the notion of specialized locations can make sense. This is neither impossible nor incompatible with the need to robotize or automate production for reasons of efficiency or output.

These two factors may therefore be closely linked, or they may be completely separate, depending on the types of operations involved in some of our activities.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Thank you very much for your answers.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Perron.

Mr. MacGregor, go ahead for two and a half minutes.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

Maybe, Mr. Sands, I'll turn it over to you. I just want to thank you for providing an important viewpoint from independent grocers. When we've been talking about the struggles between suppliers and the retail sector, we've often been talking about just the giant chains—Sobeys, Loblaws and so on. It's great to have your helpful perspective on that.

I don't have much time. Certainly we've gone through a lot of questions already. Maybe I'll just give you the opportunity, if you want, to add anything else for the committee in terms of recommendations we should be making to the federal government. Ultimately, we want to see a comprehensive report come out, with some rock-solid recommendations. Is there anything else you want to add, especially with regard to the unique needs and market position of independent grocers?

[Gary Sands]

It is hard to try to provide an overview. Listen, I'm a former political staffer. When I got into this job, I knew next to nothing about the industry. It is hard to explain to people how it works. I can't stress enough how important the independents are to the supply chain.

If we can get a framework, a grocery code of conduct.... Forget about this listening to bashing just the retail chains or bashing the suppliers. We just need a framework similar to the framework the federal government established in the payments industry, where a payments code of conduct was brought in, and I can tell you that has been very successful. We're looking to establish the same kind of framework that will provide fair dealing for everyone.

I wish I had an hour just to give you examples and explain to you the impact that the independents have downstream on increasing capacity. That is key to the independents' ability to survive, to differentiate. How do we differentiate? We buy local. We support local, which we define as provincial. Keep us on the playing field and watch the impact we have.

You should have seen the impact when Ontario opened up beer and wine in the grocery stores. Sales of Ontario beer and wine went through the roof in independent stores. Why? Because that's what we want to do. We don't want to carry the Molsons and the Labatts. We're looking to carry the local stuff. Take that example and apply it right across the chain.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

That's great. Thank you so much for that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. MacGregor.

Thank you, Mr. Sands. That pretty much covers our hour.

I really want to thank our guests, Gary Sands from the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, and Richard Davies from Olymel.

I just want to give a shout-out to our former colleague Lloyd Longfield from our past committee, who was able to join us today.

To all of you, have yourself a good evening. We'll see you this Thursday.

The meeting is adjourned.