Agriculture committee  I'll give you one example. This happened last January. A Quebec producer got a call from a major chain that wanted to sell one of its products, as my boss mentioned earlier. The product was subject to an agreement between the producer and the major chain. A few days later, the s

Agriculture committee  Thanks for your question. Consumers would definitely view healthy relations between suppliers and retailers as a positive. At the request of the federal, provincial and territorial departments, we worked for two and a half years to establish a dialogue in order to develop a r

Agriculture committee  I would say that the major retailers that influence the market must be part of this. Eighty percent of sales are made by a small number of retailers. Those five major retailers in Canada must definitely be part of it. The associations of smaller retailers took an energetic part

Agriculture committee  Take the United States as an example. The U.S. prohibits Chinese carrots from entering the country unless it's having a shortage. It's afraid that diseases will spread across the U.S. We discussed this a little earlier today. Why aren't diseases a food safety issue for Canada? A

Agriculture committee  One thing is clear, and that's that we're seeing a new and unfortunate trend toward private standards on which governments have no say. We've cited numerous examples during meetings before the committee. As you know, listed companies increasingly have ESG standards. Most of the

Agriculture committee  We think so, Mr. Lehoux. Consider the beet example. The sugar beet was already a certified product in Canada. PMRA was simply asked to expand the certification to include the traditional beet. If you're playing Jeopardy, and I ask you how many years the file has been under revie

Agriculture committee  Please allow me to add to that answer, Mr. Lehoux. Earlier Mr. Lemaire discussed food waste, which is a serious problem. Plastics help preserve products for much longer periods. We're talking about grocery basket affordability here. Take two pieces of broccoli, one wrapped in p

Agriculture committee  Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for inviting us to appear before you and for the time you are giving us. For some months now, fruit and vegetable growers in Europe and Quebec have obviously expressed despair at a challenging economic and societal climate. Last summer, 60% of Que

Agriculture committee  I was there with my colleague Ron Lemaire. Without violating any confidentiality agreements, I can tell you they were very constructive discussions. Our colleagues from Sobeys and Metro were there as well. There was a genuine desire to understand the suppliers' situation and to r

Agriculture committee  I agree with you, Mr. Perron. The reasoning is clear. If the retail chains don't want to revamp their business model or reduce fines and various costs, that definitely won't have a perceptible impact on consumers. Having said that, I assume that more transparency also results in

Agriculture committee  If they decide not to comply with it, you should make the code mandatory and adopt a binding new legislative measure. We negotiated for two years, Mr. Perron. New Zealand, for example, also negotiated for about two years, and that resulted in the passage of an act. So why would

Agriculture committee  Mr. Lehoux, I would essentially say that's the case from a regulatory standpoint. The statutes are in place and the entire global trade environment is also regulated. We mainly have to see what human and financial resources the Canadian government devotes to random inspections,

Agriculture committee  They will definitely have an impact on the businesses because new ways of operating in the logistics chain will have to be put in place. However, the major challenge is the issue of product expiration. As you know, many fruit and vegetable products are extremely fragile. Ontario

Agriculture committee  We can say that, despite the fact those programs have been renewed until 2028, climate change is at our door and we have to be able to adapt in accordance with its magnitude. Quebec suffered dramatic consequences this past summer, when we had record precipitation and a frost in J

Agriculture committee  Climate change will obviously bring on new farming practices. We have to work with the various stakeholders, such as the scientists and the businesses that sell inputs, to adapt our farming practices to climate change. This need to adapt practices, whether in irrigation or drain