Thank you very much, Chair, and thank you to the witnesses for being here today.
Ms. Lee, you kind of alluded to this problem, but we're recognizing that our growers are struggling. They're not just struggling; I worry that young growers and young farmers are not going to get in the business of fresh fruit and vegetables. That's something that really contributes to our food sovereignty, our food security and being able to sustain ourselves here in Canada by growing what we need in order for us to feed ourselves.
One thing I see, and from experience, is producers being held hostage by big grocery chains. There are concerns. I know labour costs are up. We have a hard time finding labour, let alone dealing with rising costs. Our input costs are up for fertilizer, transportation and especially shipping. I hear that from growers. Of course, the carbon tax contributes to the increased cost in shipping and transportation, especially in getting product from field to warehouse and from warehouse to a food distribution centre.
Mr. St-Laurent, I have to say thank you for acknowledging and recognizing that without increased prices and paying farmers more, we are not going to actually have profitable farmers and we're not going to see farmers in the business.
By the same token, I've heard you and Loblaw say that you negotiate with farmers and suppliers and that when they ask, you don't always give them what they're asking for. I see that it has been a problem also for farmers because they can't keep bearing these costs without getting some increases from the grocery retailers to be able to cover their costs.
I'm just wondering, Ms. Lee, if you could expand on how a grocery code of conduct would help our growers. I've been a big advocate for that from the beginning, and it's great to see something coming down the pipe on that.
How would a grocery code of conduct help our farmers get paid fairly for their goods?