Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, witnesses, for appearing here today.
I have been sounding the alarm for years that 80% of the grocery market in Canada is controlled by only five major retail grocery chains. The oligopoly of the grocery industry keeps profits high while often forcing farmers and producers to sell at a loss, and it's directly contributing to the death of family produce farms in Canada.
While the Competition Bureau is familiar with the abuse of dominance, for those watching at home to understand, it is quickly put as when a company has a dominant market position and engages in anti-competitive acts with an intended negative effect on a competitor or engages in conduct that results in a substantial lessening or prevention of competition.
My question to the Competition Bureau is this: Given the record profits of grocers, sky-high prices facing consumers and increasing fees being charged to farmers just for the privilege of selling to grocery retailers, would there be grounds for an investigation on an abuse of dominance in the grocery industry?