Mr. Speaker, the member for Peterborough—Kawartha continues the Conservative thesis that the carbon tax is the primary driving factor behind the skyrocketing food prices we have seen. However, the numbers have actually been crunched, and it increases prices by a tiny amount.
Trevor Tombe at the University of Calgary found that the carbon tax increases food prices by 0.3%. Last January, food price inflation was 10.4%; therefore, the vast majority of food price inflation is driven by something other than the carbon tax. What is it driven by? It is driven by, first, corporate profit-taking; second, extreme climate events, somewhat ironically; and third, challenges in the supply chain. The member did not mention any of those other factors in her speech.
The other thing I will note is that, last month, the carbon tax went up and food price inflation went down. If the carbon price is the primary factor driving food price inflation, how could that be possible?