Agriculture committee  As I said, I'm a leader of this company and I'm here to answer your questions today. As for the confidence, I think our customers are showing confidence through their hundreds of thousands of transactions every day.

Agriculture committee  Our revenue has certainly increased due to inflation, but for the same reasons, our expenses have as well. However, the margin has remained stable. In fact, for Metro, the food margin is down because we haven't been able to pass on all the cost increases to consumers, and it's been offset by a higher margin in the pharmacy business.

Agriculture committee  There are a number of stakeholders in the food supply chain. I can tell you about my experience, but I can't speak to the reality that 44% of growers experience. What I can tell you is that when we go to local suppliers, we do so through a web-based transactional platform. Suppliers post the prices at which they are willing to sell their products and the quantities they can offer.

Agriculture committee  We know and acknowledge how difficult it is for Canadians with rising food prices, and our team works tirelessly to make sure that we offer quality value to customers. Whether it's private label, our discount banners or our weekly promotions on thousands of products, that's what we try to do: offer the best value possible to customers in these difficult times.

Agriculture committee  Similar to what I've said, we try to make sure that we offer the best value possible to our consumers. We do support the communities. I mentioned the support we do through food banks in Quebec and Ontario, which I think is important. As I said, I think it's also part of our corporate social responsibility to make sure we support the communities in which we operate.

Agriculture committee  I'm sorry. I didn't hear the first part of your statement.

Agriculture committee  No. It's very difficult to predict what the price will be on fresh products. It fluctuates on a daily and a weekly basis. As I said, we do have a lot of price increase requests on the centre of the store. That has a backlog, which we're dealing with as we speak, but it's very difficult to predict what the costs will be on fresh products.

Agriculture committee  I don't have the specifics. I don't know about specific fees. All I know is that we try to negotiate and be transparent with all fees that we charge suppliers.

Agriculture committee  No. In fact, we have a very transparent pricing mechanism with local suppliers. We have a web-based transaction platform through which we put out the quantities that we're looking for—

Agriculture committee  With respect to the fees that we negotiate, I don't have a specific example for you, but I'm saying that the pricing that we negotiate with suppliers is very transparent. They bid for what they want to sell on the web platform—

Agriculture committee  In some cases, we have a lump sum payment that we negotiate with suppliers. When they do promotions with us, it could be a lump sum; it could be a tactical amount, or it could be a portion of revenues or purchases. These are all negotiated transaction fees that we negotiate with suppliers who participate in promotions or campaigns with their products.

Agriculture committee  Generally, speaking with suppliers—

Agriculture committee  As I said, we negotiate the fees transparently, if there are any. I cannot comment on your specific example. At Metro, we want to make sure we have a transparent negotiation mechanism, and, as I said, it's something we negotiate in good faith transparently.

Agriculture committee  We pay the local suppliers very quickly. It's part of our policy to make sure we pay local suppliers more quickly than under our normal payment terms.

Agriculture committee  It varies per negotiation, but my team tells me it's within days. We want to make sure we pay very quickly.