Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thanks, Mr. MacGregor, for bringing this at this time, which is great because it didn't disrupt some of our other meetings, which I appreciate very much.
Thanks to the chair for creating some time for committee business for this discussion.
I think this is an important motion. I generally share your concern with the fact that.... I think you're quite rightly pointing to the net profits of the three major companies as your evidence that indicates this as an area for inquiry. Certainly, there is some conversation that could be had about whether this is the best committee to study it. I think Canadians don't particularly care about that. What I think is that our committee covers the agri-food industry. We've probably prioritized producers more in our work and some of the supply chain that excludes retailers, but I don't see why that should necessarily exclude us from studying this, especially given that this topic is so important today with the cost of living being something that we're all talking about every day in the House of Commons. I certainly hear in my riding that people are concerned about the rising cost of living.
There's a tendency to look at the inflationary pressures globally and to talk about that divorced from some of the businesses that control a lot of the supply chain. I think, in this case, you're talking about net profits, and net profits are excluding costs—over and above the cost to operate a business. I ran a business for many years. I was the CEO of that company, and I know that net profits were hard to come by, so those companies' claiming those massive net profits is a concern at a time when Canadians are feeling those pressures.
I support the motion generally. In terms of wording, I think others have made some good suggestions. I appreciate Mr. Perron's suggestions. I also think that there might be an opportunity to look at the impact on farmers and also to look at the supply chain in general. One of the concerns I've often had with our agri-food system is that there is a lot of consolidation that's happened within the processing.... The whole supply chain has been consolidated over many years. That gives more market share to fewer companies that thereby have more influence on the market. Ultimately, the consumer, at the end of the day, stands to feel it, especially if those companies are claiming large net profits. I think we should all be concerned about that at a time like this.
I appreciate your reading the anonymous statement as well, because I've heard some similar things in my riding. I appreciate that. I appreciate your bringing it forward, and I think we should study it. I'd just suggest that perhaps we could look at the supply chain and the impact on farmers, which I think coincides with some of the other comments that were made.
I'll stop there, but thanks.