Finance committee  Thank you, Chairman and distinguished members of the committee, for the opportunity to present as you examine concerning matters related to COVID-19. My name is Denise Allen, and I am the president and CEO of Food Processors of Canada. For more than 35 years, Food Processors of

Finance committee  Sure, and thank you very much for that question. Currently, we're seeing a shortening of payment terms being requested across the board, especially in the food distribution side of the business. A lot of businesses are moving to cash on delivery, or COD. We know this is really c

Agriculture committee  Good afternoon, Chair and committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear today. I'm Denise Allen. I'm president and CEO of Food Processors of Canada. For more than 35 years, we have been the leading voice of Canada's food and beverage processing facilities. The recent allow

Agriculture committee  There are a number of ways that retailers can enforce, place or shift their risk for innovation, development and capital plans to the supplier, and ultimately the primary producer—everything from short payment of invoices to penalties on fulfillment. Right now order-in quantiti

Agriculture committee  That's a very good point. Certainly I agree that the size and scale of the fees that are being imposed on suppliers, in some cases, represent the entire operating margin of smaller and medium-sized businesses. It becomes unprofitable very quickly. That business can shut down with

Agriculture committee  It's an excellent question. We are calling on the federal government to help establish the framework that the provinces and territories can adopt, so that there's a consistent implementation of a grocery code of conduct that is ultimately enforceable across the country. We thi

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much for that question. I would have to say yes. We have a fairly uncompetitive landscape in Canada. Land values, taxation and regulatory reform.... Some of that has created part of the quality value proposition that we have for export of food products. We have a

Agriculture committee  Some of them are overlapping between federal and provincial jurisdictions. Some of them are uncompetitive inputs, such as having to pay for or import inputs for further processing compared to other jurisdictions. We have worked with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Ottawa to

Agriculture committee  In short, yes. A grocery code of conduct will allow us to have greater input on which fees and fines are imposed on us. We would have a mechanism to have fair and reasonable good-faith negotiations with retailers and, in doing so, keep more profit in those processing companies to

Agriculture committee  I'd have to agree with Minister Kelly. First and foremost, we face a labour crisis in Canada as it pertains to the manufacturing sector, which is acutely felt in food processing. We need greater-skilled workers, access to labour forces, and that will immediately improve our comp

Agriculture committee  There is no doubt that the Competition Bureau...and the act itself holds opportunity to provide it with more reach, or teeth, if you will, to investigate where there are concerns of over-concentration, certainly in sectors that have such far-reaching impact on Canadians' lives as

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Chairman. Good afternoon, Chairman and distinguished members of the committee. Thank you for your invitation to appear on behalf of the Food Producers of Canada to discuss the important issue of food price inflation and its effects in Canada. I am Denise Allen, presi

Agriculture committee  FPC members are reporting a multitude of impacts that are directly related to interest rate rises and interest rates in debt servicing. Access to capital has been restricted. It's very difficult when business owners are looking to invest in plant equipment, innovation or measures

Agriculture committee  Certainly. The estimation of $2 billion overall as an impact to the industry for front-of-pack labelling alone is accurate. In the current competitive environment, we are looking at every possible input to our businesses rising dramatically. From front-of-pack labelling, whose t

Agriculture committee  Thank you for that question. It's a very good question. I would refer to economies of scale. The majority of my members are small and medium-sized enterprises and they struggle with the time and investment it takes to apply for the government funding that is involved in a lot of