Agriculture committee  In fact, when you look at the charts, what made up the increase was crude oil prices and wholesale margins on refining. It wasn't the Bank of Canada printing money. It wasn't the price on pollution. How do you explain that?

Agriculture committee  Excuse me, Mr. Terrazzano, but you're not answering the question, once again. I asked you about the 59-cent increase in the average price of gasoline over that period. While 2.2% was due to the price on pollution, 59 cents was due to the increase in crude oil prices and wholesale margins, so why aren't you focusing on that issue when you're talking about the increase in prices?

Agriculture committee  Why remove it, then? When profits are going up and inflation is still high, why remove that?

Agriculture committee  Yes, I understand that. I'm sorry to interject, but time is short, so I want to hear the other witnesses. I'm not sure that balance is being met right now. As I mentioned, there's the $2 decrease in the hero pay and the removal of the freeze on No Name products in all of the stores when consumers are still struggling with food prices—

Agriculture committee  Yes. Maybe now, because time is tight, Mr. Weston, you could comment on that and what more could be done to address these concerns.

Agriculture committee  No, I understand, but, respectfully, profits have been going up significantly, however you look at it. Whether you want to look at margin numbers or whether you want to look at whatever segment, they have been going up. It would seem to me there was room to keep the price freeze in place and not increase those prices, while having the promotions and the other things you're talking about.

Agriculture committee  Thank you.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to Mr. La Flèche, Mr. Medline and Mr. Weston for being here today. I don't have all the emails printed out from the constituents with the concerns I've received, as I'm a bit of an environmentalist. My question will really be about the impact this has had on consumers and on your employees—or “team” members, as you like to call them, Mr.

Agriculture committee  On the code of conduct, do you think that it will help increase competition?

Agriculture committee  Do you think it should be mandatory, then?

Agriculture committee  Going back to some of the previous witnesses we've had from the grocery chains, it's very hard to get detailed financial data on specific sectors or even to look at the grocery sector versus other sectors within their chains, so it's hard to analyze what's happening. I noticed that this was one of the limitations of the study that you mentioned as well.

Agriculture committee  I have one last question. In the environment committee, we've been talking a lot about hot spots, vulnerable populations and how to address environmental concerns. When it comes to competition in the retail grocery sector in particular, is there any consideration for captive customers or vulnerable populations?

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to all the witnesses for being here. This issue is not unique to Canada, and we've seen numerous studies being done around the world on this same issue. I was looking over the study that you're undertaking right now and some of the issues that were raised, and I'm wondering.

Agriculture committee  You're saying that, after the spike.... There was a spike, because of pandemic spending, but volume has gone down over the last year due to price increases and people starting to go out to restaurants and not spending as much at grocery stores. We saw a spike there, but when you look at the charts, the volumes have gone down.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the witnesses for being here. This is a difficult conversation and I don't want to reiterate what's already been said. It's clear that, on the agriculture and agri-food committee, we're all concerned about the farmers. They've been struggling.