Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to concentrate my questions on performers and performance with respect to what was mentioned earlier about the all-of-government approach. Simply put, it really drills down on the provincial trade barriers and supply management. Performance adjudication would be a part of that, as well as parallel behaviours. Again, that's drilling down on how performers are undermining the act.
When we look at mergers and acquisitions and their impact on consumers and labour, the fewer performers that are part of supply management, the more impact there is on consumers and labour. Of course, ultimately there are remedies to encourage more competition and lessen labour impacts.
I'm going to drill down on the grocery sector. When we look at it, we recognize that prices increased minimally over the years until there were fewer performers. That was based on the incentivization by manufacturers and wholesalers to shrink the distribution market. I'll give you an example, and I'll be blunt. When you look at manufacturers like the Cargills of the world, Kraft and all the big names, they imposed minimums on many retailers and mom-and-pop businesses. That left maybe two or three distributors—the GFSs and Syscos of the world—and therefore the inability to have more performers. What have we seen in the last 10 years? Prices have spiked.
To the Conservatives and all those who are giving an analysis on why grocery prices are going up, I've been in the grocery business for the better part of my life, over 40 years. I can say that this is what I saw on the ground while I was trying to meet payroll, while I was trying to meet supplier demands, while I was trying to ensure that my suppliers got taken care of when bills came due.
That said, Mr. Bester, I would like your opinion on how that has rolled out over the years and how it can fit into this legislation to ensure that consumers are being looked after with fewer labour impacts.