Thank you, Chair.
Welcome to the committee, MP Saini. Congratulations on getting to this stage with your private member's bill.
It does, however, seem a bit like putting the buggy before the horse in yet another grand framework without really addressing the lion in the room of food affordability. It's in the title of the bill, and the lion's share, to double up on language, is the inputs and the cost, such as diesel, for industry to deliver food to the store and the cost for the store to deliver food to consumers.
Shouldn't we be trying to get farmers more tools to make food affordability a priority in terms of effectively making food production cheaper? The private member's bill I introduced, the FARM act, would improve or reduce red tape to get new products—feeds, seeds, fertilizers and pest control products—to the marketplace. Do we not have our priorities straight?