Thank you.
With that, Mr. Chair, I just want to quickly move the motion that I gave notice of at the last committee meeting, which all members of this committee have, regarding the police resources that are being directed to food banks across the country that are dealing with the impact of, in some cases.... I am moving this motion. The motion has been moved.
In Surrey, police were brought in to redirect traffic because of the huge number of Canadians who were seeking food. We have food banks in Montreal where police have been directed away from the very important work they're doing on our streets to protect Canadians by providing crowd control at these food banks.
The cost of food is going up in Canada, and we know that on April 1 there will be a 23% increase in the carbon tax in this country. That's not just in the provinces where the federal backstop is in place. Every province, even with their own carbon tax regime, has to increase this price to meet the federal requirements.
At a time like this, when inflation is roaring, when food prices are escalating, in some cases over 10% in some categories, Canadians can no longer afford food, and we can no longer afford to see our police officers, who are overstretched across jurisdictions, not just the RCMP, having to go to food banks to provide crowd control to protect Canadians and protect food banks because of these rising costs of food.
With that, I'll move my motion, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.