Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
For the officials, in 2017, as I mentioned, the federal government introduced legislation basically to automatically increase beer, wine and spirits excise duty rates on April 1 of every year. Obviously, that was with an index to the CPI.
Now, with monthly CPI inflation exceeding 6%, these same brewers, wineries and distilleries are looking at an excise duty rate increase next April that could be in the 6% to 7% range at a time when production costs are already soaring. That obviously is leading to higher prices, which means less pickup.
My question for the officials is this. Are you rethinking the automatic CPI approach to taxation given that the environment has completely changed? If so, will you be recommending to the finance minister's office for next year's increase to be deferred to provide Canadian consumers and also our beverage and alcohol producers some much-needed relief from these annual increases?