Finance committee  Again, it's a fair question. I wish I had numbers to show you. Obviously, climate change has an impact on agriculture every single year. Every year, we publish “Canada's Food Price Report”. Our next report, our 13th edition, is coming out on December 7. Climate change is the wi

Finance committee  Essentially, we need a coefficient to evaluate how climate change is impacting the price of food. As I said, we need to take control of the supply chain domestically so we can be less vulnerable to these issues.

Finance committee  You raise a good point. Going back briefly to the carbon tax issue with farmers, I testified before Parliament on the former bill, which didn't last due to an election. I think price-takers—farmers—have to be looked at very differently. They have no other choice but to absorb mor

Finance committee  I think it's an unfair tax for farmers, because they just can't pass on extra costs to their clients, essentially. They are essentially price-takers. They don't set prices; the market does. This is unlike processors and distributors, who have more control over their pricing, but

Finance committee  It's important to recognize that Canadians are actually going through a unique phenomenon right now when it comes to inflation. A lot of people are comparing it to 1981. In 1981, the food inflation rate was actually over 10% for just a few months. Food inflation right now is ling

Finance committee  I get that question a lot. We don't have any evidence right now to suggest that the carbon tax is influencing retail food prices, but it is a strong hypothesis. There is a strong possibility. As a lab, we applied to SSHRC for a grant to get the proper funding to look into this ma

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members. I would like to thank the committee for inviting me again. Canada's food inflation has exceeded our inflation rate for 13 straight months now. While some Canadians are coping, many are struggling. Within the G7, Canada currently has t

Finance committee  Thank you for those questions. Because of the droughts, we started the year 2022 with extremely low stocks. This year, we wanted to start a more productive year, but unfortunately, there is more humidity in western Canada than last year. It could get better, but nature has to c

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. It is always difficult to change things in a few days. To ensure food affordability, you have to have a long-term vision. Some government measures have helped the sector. For example, it has helped one of the organizations we work with, Protein Ind

Finance committee  Over the past five years, the only province that has created agri-food companies is Quebec. In fact, 461 companies have been created.

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%.

Finance committee  Yes. There's a lot of great work. Canada's a leader in genetic engineering. I don't think we've embraced that enough. From a business perspective we're doing very well. Farmers believe in the technology being developed in Canada. There's a lot of noise, as you probably know, Mr.

Finance committee  Not clearly, no, but I can say that the most recent climate change report tabled by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change does implicitly—not directly and clearly—encourage the use of genetic engineering to actually provide a safer, more sustainable agriculture to the wor

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