Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, witnesses, for being here this evening.
Last week I had a chance to question Metro about the allegations of unfair business practices, such as charging farmers a fee to even be able to sell their products to a grocer, or for having their products rejected, or for having to wait to have their trucks unloaded by the grocer. What I heard from farmers was corroborated by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. That's also what they're hearing. This is something that doesn't happen in other countries and, frankly, it's embarrassing that it happens in Canada.
I'm going to direct my question to Dr. Stanford. Could you speak to how, perhaps, lower fees and more profits going directly into the pockets of family farmers could benefit domestic food production and pricing?