Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and dear members. I would like to thank the committee for inviting me to speak about Canada's food affordability situation. Food supply chain hangovers due to the pandemic and the global impact of the invasion of Ukraine have enticed many to question the gl

Finance committee  Certainly. When we published Canada's Food Price Report in December, we were expecting an increase of anywhere between 5% to 7%. Given what has gone on so far in 2022, we are expecting the 7% threshold to be surpassed essentially because of the invasion of Ukraine. I would pro

Finance committee  Absolutely. Currently I'm speaking to you from Tampa Bay, Florida. I'm a visiting scholar at the University of South Florida. The food inflation rate here is 9.4%. This is not just a Canadian phenomenon. This is affecting the entire planet. I think that everyone should be worrie

Finance committee  I assume you're talking about supplies and food security domestically. Is that your question?

Finance committee  I don't see any evidence of that at this point. I'm using the federal budget as evidence. I think Ottawa's intent was to make our agriculture greener, which is fine, but what the world really needs right now is more efficient Canadian agriculture. I'm thinking about some of the

Finance committee  I will say that there's nothing wrong with food inflation, but food inflation that is out of control is a disease affecting many families. That's where we are right now. I would say that food affordability is a challenge. Honestly, right now, I don't see any evidence that the gov

Finance committee  It's a great question. I'm not sure there's anything we can do this year, because it's May 16. Either our seeds are in the ground or they're about to be in the ground. Contracts are signed. Right now I would say if you start with farm gate, a lot of farmers are flying in the dark

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. I would probably say that at the farm gate it would be critical to apply a break like that. Closer to the consumer, I don't know, but I do believe that farmers have no options but to absorb extra costs. They're at the mercy of what's happening. As was

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. MacDonald, for the question. Yes, I think we're seeing a new normal. Prices won't drop any time soon for a variety of reasons. Unpredictability is really pushing companies to hedge against risks very differently. I think since COVID, they're adopting a new mindset.

Finance committee  Sir, are you talking about the FAO specifically?

Finance committee  The FAO has a critical role to play, obviously, with the World Food Programme in particular, which is going to be in a deficit again this year. I would certainly recommend continuing to support the program itself. I've actually had the pleasure of working at the FAO in Rome for

Finance committee  If I remember correctly, I was actually using, as an example, the stop sale that occurred between Frito Lay and Loblaws. You may recall, about a month ago, Frito Lay or PepsiCo decided to stop selling to Loblaws because they couldn't agree on prices. Stop sales are frequent in t

Finance committee  Yes, you did, sir.

Finance committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. Fast. I consider myself an optimist most of the time. I do believe in the nature of free markets, and I do believe that we have a strong agri-food economy in Canada. It lacks ambition, but it is a strong economy. We do very well for the most part,

Finance committee  That's correct. Numbers are being reported by StatsCan, but we actually have every reason to believe that Statistics Canada is underevaluating the current food inflation rate right now. We believe that the actual food inflation rate in Canada, in March, was close to 9.5% or 10%.