Evidence of meeting #143 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cards.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Joël Lightbound
Thank you, Mr. Garon.
Mr. Masse, go ahead. You will be the last questioner for today's meeting.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It was a fascinating discussion of cap and trade and the carbon tax, which we now have because of the Conservatives in Ontario, thanks to a $2-billion bill with it.
However, that's not what I want to get on about as we finish this part. I want to rightly bring it back to the fact that, again, food and purchasing is now going on with buy now, and pay later payment systems and what this means for the future and so forth. One thing that's changing in the grocery store sector—and I hope you can highlight whether there has been much study on this—is that they're offering to do their own shopping for customers now, and in there, their advertising hasn't been consistent with regard to food pricing. Also, some of them have fees or deposits that are required to be part of that. Then, what I noticed—and I don't know if there are some good stats on this or maybe it's too early yet—is that it seems that seniors and people with disabilities and so forth might use those services more, and if that's an increased cost.... Almost all of those you don't pay cash for. They're all delivery services that go onto, again....
What accountability or measures are there in that system? If the retailers are now encouraging more practices to move that.... If it has different pricing and costs for doing it, and then you're using the systems that put you into the higher bracket of borrowing again, should there be more truth in advertising to this? Should there be a service for just the regular cost of doing business that's rolled into the whole model, especially if seniors and people with disabilities are a primary target for that?
I think some of this is also a response to those other independents, like Uber Eats and the other ones, that are getting into that market too. I can understand why they're creating a system there. Third parties are using access to their system, so why not have their own system? Again, I've run into issues, and I think there hasn't been the most overt transparency with regard to the cost of using that service.
October 31st, 2024 / 10:15 a.m.
Senior Director, Agri-Food Analytics Lab and Professor, Dalhousie University, Agri-Food Analytics Lab
That is a very good point, Mr. Masse. Right now, 3.6% of all food sales in Canada is done online. Before COVID it was 1.9%. We believe that, within the next two years, we could reach 4.5%, and that percentage is driven by people staying at home, seniors. Provinces are pushing people to stay home longer instead of going into seniors' homes, for example, which will get them to buy more food online. To your point, I do think that there is going to be a growing number of people who may not understand the true cost of getting food delivered, on credit, to their homes.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Yes, that's very helpful because if we're shifting.... That's a good notation, actually: The government encouraging people to stay at home is a public policy, so we're really building our health care model—who it's for—but the result of that is increasing vulnerability, given the purchasing systems that are available for them.
Thank you very much for the testimony, and thank you, Mr. Chair.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Joël Lightbound
Thank you, Mr. Masse.
That concludes this meeting of the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology.
I'd like to thank Ms. Lang, Ms. Taylor and Mr. Charlebois for joining us this morning. The discussion was very informative. I wish you a good day.
I wish you the same, fellow members.
I would also like to thank the interpreters and all our support staff.
The meeting is adjourned.