The House of Commons committee on agriculture recommended that the federal government “take the necessary steps to collect and make public data on costs throughout the Canadian agri-food supply chain—including disaggregated data on costs in the primary agriculture, food and beverage processing, and food retail sectors—along the same lines as the information the United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service makes available in its Food Dollar Series research program.”
It is the first of 13 recommendations is made in response to its inquiry into rising food prices.
The second recommendation is to increase subsidies for Indigenous and remote Northern communities.
The third is that the federal government,in cooperation with the provinces and territories, address food waste by:
- investigating how the elimination of “best-before” dates on foods would impact Canadians;
- partnering with non-profit organizations and large food retailers to develop programs to divert food that would otherwise be wasted to Canadians experiencing food insecurity; and
- ensuring its plastic reduction requirements are attainable by extending the implementation timeline for a single-use plastics ban and working with retailers to ensure that commercially viable alternatives to plastics, in particular for packaging designed to extend the shelf-life of food and limit food waste, will be available in the needed quantities.
The fourth is to scrap the increase in tariffs on fertilizer imported from Russia.
The fifth to ensure that farmers and companies involved in the food industry have access to short-term low-cost credit and The sixth calls for implementation of the recommendations made by the National Supply Chain Task Force and specifically:
- investing in critical transportation infrastructure;
- supporting supply chain digitization;
- addressing chronic labour shortages in the transportation supply chain; and
establishing a Supply Chain Office, as outlined in Budget 2023, to facilitate a whole-of-government approach to these matters.
The seventh calls for speedier approvals and less paperwork to bring in temporary foreign workers.
Number eight calls for subsidies to encourage small and medium-size companies to undertake innovation and automation.
The ninth says that if the Competition Bureau determines food-industry companies are taking excess profits on groceries, they face additional taxes.
The tenth calls for allowing food imports that meet Canadian standards, but also said the foreign products need to meet the same quality standards as domestic products.
The eleventh calls for a mandatory code of practice to govern relationships between supermarkets and auppliers. The federal, provincial and territorial ministers of agriculture have been working on one, but so far have indicated it would be voluntary.
Number 12 calls for a uniform system of unit pricing so consumers can easily compare prices.
The thirteenth and final recommendation is that the federal government strengthen the Competition Bureau’s mandate and its ability to ensure competition in the Canadian grocery sector by:
- implementing legislative changes to the Competition Act that provide the Competition Bureau with the power to compel companies and individuals who are the subject of its market studies to provide it with relevant documents and information, including disaggregated financial data;
- reviewing the competitive thresholds the Competition Bureau uses to evaluate mergers and acquisitions to ensure that competition does not suffer;
- studying the creation of a permanent administrative commission, along the lines of France’s Observatoire de la formation des prix et des marges des produits alimentaires, with a mandate to analyze data relating to price formation and margins in transactions along the agri-food supply chain; and
- considering any conclusions and recommendations the Competition Bureau makes to the federal government in its upcoming market study on the Canadian grocery sector, notably those related to price-setting mechanisms, “black-out” periods, revenue sharing along the agri-food chain, and barriers to entry faced by new firms entering this sector.
