Agriculture committee  I feel that a task force should be mandated to perform three tasks. The first task would be to produce better data and analysis. That would allow us to better understand, for example, what impact the carbon tax has on food prices. That’s still an open question. The second task would be to determine what is currently having repercussions and what the solutions are.

Agriculture committee  Clearly, it will help better fill the gap that exists. Even the Competition Bureau report from last summer acknowledged their limitations and certainly didn't answer all of the questions that are there. I think it creates a lot of uncertainty around what exactly is happening and what we really understand.

Agriculture committee  Again, I think what the professor said earlier was that we don't have a lot of data. The reality is that retail prices are set by a variety of different factors. Farmers will say that retail prices don't reflect what happens at the farm gate. I think a lot of people along the value chain will say that retail prices don't reflect the different policies and impacts along the way.

Agriculture committee  That's right. Yes.

Agriculture committee  I often think that there's an untold story around the good work that the value chain actors today do in addressing poverty issues. If you look at companies like some of the large retailers, if you look at farm groups and farm associations, they are major donors and contributors to lunch programs and food banks.

Agriculture committee  I think the simple reality is that a well-functioning supply chain is good for everybody who is involved in it. It's good for the farmers. It's good for the retailers, and it's good for the consumers at the end of the day. The question is what role a code can play in making it function better.

Agriculture committee  There are a couple of important things to keep in mind when we think about the carbon tax in agriculture, and agriculture and food, because those things are slightly different. First, the government made a decision with the GST to exempt the food system because it's different. I think there's an interesting precedent to think about.

Agriculture committee  When you look at the situation in other countries, very often there is an evolution. Some may start by implementing a voluntary or more limited code, but they usually end up adopting a fairly detailed mandatory code. It’s fairly easy to understand that, if not every stakeholder in the chain adheres to the code, its impact will be lower than if it were more detailed and everyone adhered to it.

Agriculture committee  The starting point needs to be that this is a systemic challenge. Food prices aren't a retail issue and they're not a farmer issue; they are food chain issue. We need to look for systemic solutions. The reality is that, for better or for worse, it can be hard to have some of those more thoughtful dialogues around what the challenges are and what the different tools that we have to solve them are.

Agriculture committee  I think the reality is that we've shied away from additional investments in R and D in Canada. Some of the unsung heroes in the fight around sustainability and food affordability are our plant breeders in this country that are doing really good work to make more productive and more sustainable varieties.

Agriculture committee  Those are two different but I think equally important objectives at the end of the day. The challenges around agriculture are not simple. It is a complex economic-organic system at the end of the day. I think the thing we need to do first is recognize the strategic role that agriculture plays in the economy in Canada.

Agriculture committee  One of the greatest advantages our food system has is a relatively open border with the United States. The ability for food to go north and south is important in terms of food security for Canadians, economic prosperity for North America and environmental sustainability. Anytime you thicken that border, it has an impact on all of those things.

Agriculture committee  I think a couple of things can be true at the same time. We can have one of the lowest emission food-producing systems in the world, and there could still be an opportunity to reduce our emissions further. Often the big winner from reducing emissions are Canadian farmers themselves.

Agriculture committee  That is certainly the principle behind the carbon tax, that you're going to add the cost related to the emissions of a product. That is the intent. I think if you go onto the government's website, that's very similar language to what they use. We have this reality where the food system is a source of emissions, producing food in Canada and around the world represents about 10% of global emissions.

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chair, members of the Committee, good morning. Thank you for inviting me to testify today. The work done by the Committee on issues related to food price inflation is essential to deepen our knowledge and to propose solutions. About one year ago, I appeared before the committee and recommended that the government do more to release data and analysis to improve our understanding of the drivers of food price inflation.