Thank you.
Mr. Charlebois, in your “Canada's Food Price Report 2023”, it mentions that overall food prices will rise by 5% to 7% this year, and that a family of four will see their grocery bills rise by over $1,000 in 2024. Your report references higher production costs, which we've heard from Mr. Currie. Farmers and producers are facing higher productions costs. Higher transportation costs will impact the price of food. This is a direct quote from your report, “may be passed on to the consumer as producers try to remain profitable.” A large part of production is the fuel price for trucks that transport our food. They have to pay the carbon tax. We see that the NDP-Liberal government wants to quadruple the carbon tax. In fact, it's going to go up on April 1.
Given that the carbon tax is inevitably going to increase the cost to transport goods to the grocery store, do you believe that it's going to have a direct impact on Canadian families and will be a reason for the higher food prices that we'll see on the grocery store shelves coming up?