Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, with whom I sit on the agriculture committee, for his great speech. He brought up a few points with respect to farmers.
We know that grocery prices have increased in the stores. For farmers, input costs have gone up. The biggest thing is the carbon tax. The second is interest rates on loans, so the costs have gone up for servicing debt. Minimum wage has gone up in many provinces. We are seeing those three basic increases, which contribute to the increased price farmers are asking for their products from the grocers.
If we look at lack of competition with respect to the grocery stores, here is one example. I will ask my hon. colleague to comment on this: The price of lettuce in Vancouver is more expensive than that in Toronto. Why would that be, when California, which supplies the lettuce, is closer to Vancouver than it is to Toronto? Why is it that people are paying less in Toronto for groceries than they are in Vancouver? The answer is simple: It is competition. There is more competition in Toronto—