Agriculture committee  Thank you, and thank you to all the witnesses for their answers.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much to the witnesses, who are here virtually and in person. I'd like to begin by expressing my condolences to the people of this region. The member opposite has described the disruption and the distress caused by such a plant closure. As members of the agriculture committee, we're very supportive of our farmers and realize that a transition such as this is very difficult.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. Do you think having more local food producers, more sustainable agriculture locally, could help to address some of these problems as well?

Agriculture committee  Great, thank you. Regarding the transportation costs, fuel costs, we've heard a lot about food inflation being caused by the price on pollution. The price on pollution did not increase between April 2022 and April 2023, yet I believe that was the period of highest inflation in food prices.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. I think I'm out of time.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. Thank you to all of our witnesses for participating. I'd like to address my question to PIAC, and perhaps, since you're in the room, Ms. Hill, you could answer my question. I noticed that your main recommendation to do with the increase in food prices is really to increase or continue the support for the most vulnerable.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. Mr. Lawford, do you have anything to add to that?

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Whitehurst. I have just one quick follow-up. Which of the recommendations that you've made in your presentation do you think will go furthest towards re-establishing that trust between the consumer and the grocers?

Agriculture committee  Thank you. Thank you to all the witnesses for being here. I'd like to direct my questions to Mr. Whitehurst from the Consumers Council of Canada, as you represent consumers. In this study up until now, we've had a lot of discussion on the issue of trust between consumers and the major grocery chains.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. Thank you to all the witnesses for being here, and I'll give a special congratulations to Ms. Hendricks. It's great seeing you in this role. I noticed in the testimony of Mr. Macdonald and Ms. Hendricks that there was a different conclusion reached about the profits of the large retail chains.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. It's not my position, but thank you very much. It's a minimal amount of the increase there, but that's interesting to note. I also want to go back to you, Professor Lee, about the emphasis that's being put on the profit margin. I don't see consumers going to grocery stores and talking about profit margins.

Agriculture committee  Yes, okay. Thank you very much, Professor Lee.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the witnesses for being here today. I found it very interesting, Professor Lee, to hear you talk about evidence-based research. As one of the facts you used, you said that there could be no “greedflation”, or there could be no excess profits, because Canada's food inflation is below the OECD average, yet our other two witnesses are arguing that it is in fact the Canadian price on pollution that is causing this food inflation.

Agriculture committee  I understand that, Professor Lee, but you use that very fact to say there could be no excess profits in Canada because we're below the OECD average. I don't know how it can be argued one way and the other. I want to go back to some evidence-based research. I was looking, Mr.

Agriculture committee  No, I don't.... Excuse me, but I'm asking a specific question—