I don't have stats. I will say that what we are seeing, though, as you all know because you're talking to your constituents, is that supply chain costs are going up, whether fuel costs or just the costs of getting replacement goods and labour costs. At the same time, we have a very difficult time passing the full extent of those costs through to consumers, who are already facing food inflation, so you're getting this building up within the manufacturing sector. That is becoming a problem.
I would say the biggest impediment remains labour, though. I think when it comes to conversations about contraction or consolidation, it comes down to a point where a manufacturer will say, “I have a plant in one province. I can't get enough workers and I may just need to move all of that production to a plant in the neighbouring province and just consolidate it there.” Ultimately that means that we're going to have fewer food manufacturers and they will be concentrated in larger and larger companies.
Maybe somebody will say that having 7,000 or 8,000 food manufacturers is not sustainable if they're all small businesses. I would counter that by saying that a lot of the support for local food security comes from having those small manufacturers and that a lot of the creativity, product development and innovation that we see in our industry.... BC Food & Beverage—in your backyard—does this phenomenal awards showcase every year where they feature all of the innovative products that are coming out of B.C., which largely has small and mid-sized food manufacturers. You really should be incredibly proud of what comes out of the province.
I think it would be sad to see over-consolidation and concentration in the food-processing sector, but I think you're going to start to see that.