I get that question a lot. We don't have any evidence right now to suggest that the carbon tax is influencing retail food prices, but it is a strong hypothesis. There is a strong possibility. As a lab, we applied to SSHRC for a grant to get the proper funding to look into this matter. Unfortunately, our request was rejected, so we're going to go back at it again next year.
At $50 per metric ton, there was no real debate about affordability, but we're slowly marching toward a carbon tax of $170 per metric ton. That's triple where we are now. I'm certainly concerned about food affordability, because it affects all nodes of the supply chain. I think it's worth looking into this matter.
I was listening to the panel before this one, and the issue was raised of looking at taxes through the affordability lens. I would suggest doing that with health as well. Canada's food guide is less affordable than the old one, and nobody at Health Canada looked into it. We did, and we figured out that the second most downloaded document from the Government of Canada suggests a diet that is more expensive than what we had before.