It absolutely is. It's one of the issues. I will add that we've addressed it in the code, but I'll just explain how that works. Michael Graydon from FHCP can speak to this too.
Retailers and their suppliers—that includes all retailers, not just the chains but also the independents—engage in what's called “forecasting”. They sit down together and negotiate what they anticipate ordering over the next year, and their agreements are built around those forecasts. What we have seen over years—and particularly egregiously over COVID—is that when there were product shortages or there was high demand for certain products, certain chains would go to the suppliers and say, “We don't care, really, what's in our agreement. We want extra product.” They used their size and power to our disadvantage, because what the supplier ends up having to do is divert supply that was supposed to be earmarked for independents in Canada away from the independents and their customers in order to supply the large chain.
That results in some essential products not being available in those communities. We address that in the code. That's one of the principles that we think are very important, because if you don't have adequate supply, you're treading into the area of food security. That's very concerning to us. We were pleased that everyone on the steering committee supported that.