Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, Mr.La Flèche. Thank you for being here in person.
I don't speak French very well, so I will switch to English.
I want to thank you for being here.
We have some concerns about Metro's level of enthusiasm for the efforts our government is making to try to stabilize food prices.
First, I want to correct something for the record: Our government never said that we were going to lower grocery prices by Thanksgiving. Rather, we were working to stabilize them.
However, you expressed some concerns then about whether or not this would work. You repeated that today. I must say that I was disappointed when I saw Metro's submission to the committee of your plan to try to take action on this—without your going into details, because we all know it's confidential. It was not very robust. Let's put it that way, again.
I feel that you question the government's role in meeting with the heads of grocery chains to try to address this problem, which is of great concern. We realize, as many do, that there are global supply chain factors causing this problem. When Canadians are suffering so acutely and grocery retail profits—not margins but absolute profits—are increasing, we feel that trying to work with the grocery chains to come up with some solutions is the best way forward, as opposed to imposing things.
I'm wondering why you feel there's nothing that can be done, when other CEOs have said that these efforts have resulted in some positive actions. They are doing things they weren't doing before. Why do you feel this is something that's perhaps not worth the time of Metro?