FPC members are reporting a multitude of impacts that are directly related to interest rate rises and interest rates in debt servicing. Access to capital has been restricted. It's very difficult when business owners are looking to invest in plant equipment, innovation or measures that enhance food safety and they have a trade-off between those investments and having to pay more for virtually every expense line in their business.
In relation to being able to absorb those costs and pass them on to the consumer, it's not always possible. Many of my members are bound by trade agreements that don't allow immediate effect of price changes. Also, we're bound to a cycle of retail at operational times of the year as well. It's normal for a blackout period to exist around Christmastime that prohibits any price changes.
We are bound by those trade agreements. We are bound by all of the cost increases, inputs and trade-offs within the business, and all of those are pressuring producers' margins and our ability to reinvest in our business. It's difficult to draw a straight line, as the environment is very complex. In effect, it is prohibiting investment, and it's making us less competitive every day.
In closing, to answer your question, to put it in real terms, almost every week I hear from a member who is looking at creating a plant and investment. They look at Canada versus other jurisdictions in the world. Due to our regulatory environment, all of the issues that you named, overlapping regulations and a non-competitive market, most of the time I hear that the decision is now to invest elsewhere, other than in Canada. That's probably the most disturbing thing with respect to our domestic food supply.