Agriculture committee  We think that at a very fundamental level, not just in this sector but in every sector, there is really a problem that there's no whole-of-government approach to looking at the consumers' interest in any of these questions. The reason for having competition policy is to protect c

Agriculture committee  I could go down the list. We would say the Canadian consumer advocate—

Agriculture committee  I have no need to finish up. I apologize. It was simply that until you spoke, I didn't realize that my time was up.

Agriculture committee  Shockingly, we're seeing—and we're not the only ones—when we and others measure it, that trust in business and government is plummeting. Marketplace practices are a big part of that. For sure, we don't think that any major consumer group has been included in any of the discussio

Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  We do think that it should be adopted across the country. We would point out that Canada's other major G7 or OECD trading partners pretty much have unit pricing, and they have unit pricing specifications so that they don't get the manipulation of how unit prices are presented at

Agriculture committee  Yes, because the concentration of ownership in a wide range of industries is so far over the mark in Canada that I think you're down to the core elements of whether competition is a method to protect consumers at all. We are certainly comfortable with the idea that competition

Agriculture committee  The answer would be yes—or to some institution. We've suggested a Canadian consumer advocate, because the Competition Bureau hasn't been very effective in implementing even some of the other acts it's responsible for, which we pointed out in our presentation. There doesn't seem t

Agriculture committee  What we would say is that it's one thing that's happening. We're always conscious that packaging sizes can be changed to fit needs of consumer demand; it's not always the case that a package size changes just to optimize profit by way of trickery. Certainly it's been ubiquitous

Agriculture committee  Good afternoon. I'm Ken Whitehurst, executive director of Consumers Council of Canada. The council is a not-for-profit working towards an improved marketplace for consumers in Canada. Thank you for your invitation. Canada's consumers face difficulties. They are worried about p