Mr. Speaker, I will just read out the prices. At Maple Produce on Roncesvalles Avenue, people can get two tins of blackberries for the very affordable price of $5, and that is quoted here. Then there are raspberries, two tins for $6. I have some other things here. I do not know exactly what I bought here in each case. I see the member for Peterborough, whose riding may well have produced some of the products, although I understand that she is more in the area of carnivorous offerings at her facilities. However, I will note that at Maple Produce, people can get a lot of good, fresh food, fruit and vegetables, and I do not see tax. There is no mention of any tax on any of these items.
Each of us in our communities is trying to promote the local food retailers and the people who are producing within their community, so I had cause recently to visit Marvelous by Fred in High Park, introduced to me by Angela Robertson of the Bloor West Village Business Improvement Area, the oldest business improvement area in the world. At that bakery, I got six plain croissants and a bag of meringues. The croissants, of course, are not taxed, and the meringues, as a certain kind of processed food, are.
We know that the policies that we have and the policies that governments of different stripes have passed for years have made sure that almost all groceries, and the vast majority of groceries that are of interest to people in the House when we talk about food affordability, are not taxed. That continues to be the case. In fact, this government, with, we understand, some co-operation from the other side, is now endorsing the Canada groceries and essentials benefit. I know constituents in Taiaiako'n—Parkdale—High Park will be very pleased to hear that the benefit will bring, for a family of four, up to $1,890, and for a single person, up to $950, with the first increase in that benefit taking place in July. It is a really important measure to address food affordability issues.
We are also directing $500 million from the strategic response fund to support food processors. I know in my riding there are a number of food processors. In urban ridings and in urban communities, there is sometimes a bit more distance from our food and more of a sense that maybe we are not connected, and we all go to farmers markets in different places where we can feel a bit more connected. In urban communities across Canada, there are food processors, including a couple of major ones in my community. I know that they are going to be looking forward to hearing about the food processing fund that is going to be available to food manufacturers across Canada. These measures are really doing a number of things to raise the importance of fresh, local food. Some provinces have a real focus on that. I know our buy Canadian policies will help promote that as well.
This bill is very important, because some of those issues that I spoke about at the beginning of this address around shrinkflation, those experiences that my students addressed, have not completely gone away. Each of us has had an experience, especially in certain large grocery stores, of going to pull down a package of granola bars if we are sending kids off to school with some granola bars or some yogourt, and the print is just a bit too fine and the unit price is even finer. There might be a litre of yogourt, but maybe that litre of yogourt is now 800 millilitres, or maybe that 650 millilitres is now 600 millilitres. It is very hard to tell the difference between the costs of certain things, especially in this dynamic, changing environment where consumer tastes are often changing and where packaging is changing.
Therefore, this is an important intervention in this space. We know there is an ISO standard around food labelling and groceries, but we know these kinds of things can be improved. I heard from my friend from the Bloc that this is the thin end of the wedge of creeping federalism. I am not so sure. This is a very useful intervention to help bring some further discipline into the marketplace, and I look forward to hearing more in the debate.