Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for inviting me again to speak today.
Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to Ottawa. I'm actually in Calgary, Alberta, where the weather is nicer than in my hometown of Halifax, by the way, so I'm enjoying the weather here in beautiful Calgary, Alberta.
This issue is quite important. Border reciprocity when it comes to trade is critical, especially when our nation is trying to make our world greener through different policies like the carbon tax. It's important to understand exactly how this policy is impacting our agri-food sector's competitiveness.
I've said this before at this committee—twice already, I think. Instead of looking at retail prices or the retail landscape, it's critical to look at the supply chain and wholesale prices. If you look at figure 1 in the document I sent to the committee along with my opening remarks, you will see a huge difference in the wholesale prices you find here in Canada versus those in the U.S.
Since 2019, when the carbon tax was implemented, food wholesale prices in Canada have actually increased by 37% more than in the U.S., which is significant. In other words, our wholesale prices are now less competitive than prices you find in the U.S., and that's due to several policies. Of course, it's hard to isolate the impact of the carbon tax as a coefficient, but we can still speculate that the carbon tax did not help our cause.
Since April 2019, Canada's RSPI, or retail services prices index, has increased by approximately 32.47%, while wholesale prices in Canada have increased by 42.26%. If you look at figure 2, you'll see that there's basically no gap between wholesale and retail anymore. Wholesale food prices are putting way more pressure on retail, making our food essentially more expensive. Now, again, you could speculate that wholesale prices are being pushed up by policies like the carbon tax.
In the United States, the pressure from wholesale producer prices, which they call the PPI, is passed on more directly to consumers, with a more immediate reflection of rising costs at the retail level. This suggests that in the U.S., contrary to in Canada, retailers may have more of a buffer or are more inclined to adjust consumer prices in response to producer price increases.
If you look at figure 3 in the document I sent, you'll see there's a huge difference between the U.S. and Canada. When you think about border reciprocity, you have to look at both landscapes and how they're behaving very differently right now. In other words, just looking at the data right now, Canada is put at a disadvantage over the United States.