Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for being here.
This is a difficult conversation and I don't want to reiterate what's already been said. It's clear that, on the agriculture and agri-food committee, we're all concerned about the farmers. They've been struggling. We've gone through all the costs that have gone up. We're also concerned about the consumers. There are a lot of individuals struggling to make ends meet and afford food.
Of course, I'm a business person. I understand return on investment and margins, but I don't understand why profits have definitely been going up for grocery retailers. You can look at the numbers any way you want. Volume has gone down, profits have gone up and margins have stayed the same. It's because the margins are on a higher base because of inflation. In fact, you are profiting from inflation.
We can look at this any way you want and talk about all the costs coming through, but facts don't lie. Executive pay has gone up. Dividends have gone up, and you said investments have gone up. However, workers' salaries haven't gone up—perhaps slightly, but in fact they actually went down by $2 from what was given during COVID. Prices have gone up for consumers.
I continue to hear this emphasis on margins and accounting guidelines, but I've also heard from you that you want transparency and everything has to be open. I don't think there's any requirement that you only report margins the way you are. The accounting guidelines don't restrict you from reporting it in a different way. I'm wondering why you keep falling back on that and refuse to talk about the absolute dollar numbers you have made on groceries from people—breaking it down more by the actual components, as opposed to just a description of what's going on in each area.
Perhaps you could address the fact that profits have gone up because of inflation. Why are you not passing any of that on to the consumer—helping, during this difficult period, by reducing prices, somehow?
I'd like an answer from all of you. With increased profits, why are you not trying to help consumers by keeping prices down more?