Federal Agriculture Commission Releases 10 Recommendations to Fight High Food Prices – PembinaValleyOnline.com

The federal government’s agriculture and agri-food commission has published a new report recommending 10 different methods it believes could help tackle high food prices.

The committee says it held seven meetings between December 4, 2023 and February 27, 2024 on efforts to stabilize food prices, and the report summarizes the evidence presented during those meetings.

They recommended the following:

1. The Commission, noting the particular importance of temporary foreign workers to the agriculture and agri-food sectors, recommends that the Government of Canada reduce the administrative burden associated with the Temporary Foreign Worker program and make the established employer pilot program permanent in Budget 2022.

2. The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada increase staffing levels and increase the regularity of border inspections to ensure compliance, and that the Government require that imported products meet the same quality standards – including environmental, labor and cultivation standards – as domestic products, while ensuring that it meets its commercial obligations.

   
   

3. The committee recommends that the Government of Canada support the adoption of Bill C-234 without any changes to the version adopted by this committee.

4. The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada review its front-of-pack labeling regulations to better balance its public health goals with industry concerns about the costs of complying with the proposed deadlines and the impact this will have on food prices for consumers.

5. The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada work with industry to provide commercially available and affordable alternatives to price lookup (PLU) stickers and other primary plastic food packaging before implementing the proposed Pollution Prevention Planning Notice.

6. The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada take the following actions to help Canadians experiencing food insecurity: Review the Nutrition North Program to ensure it is meeting its mandate to provide affordable food to residents and that retail grants are being used appropriately , and -assessment of goals for 2017 Food policy for Canada with an emphasis on food affordability.

   
   

7. The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada establish a collaborative process with the provinces and territories to discuss the enactment of legislation applying the Code of Conduct for Foodstuffs, while respecting their jurisdiction.

8. The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada consider implementing policies to effectively address excess net profits in monopolistic and oligopolistic sectors of the food supply chain that drive up food prices for consumers and input costs for farmers.

9. The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada strengthen competition law by making the following legislative changes: adopting structural assumptions to simplify merger cases by shifting the burden to the merging parties, demonstrating why a merger that significantly increases concentration would not significantly reduce or prevent competition. reviewing the standard of remedy to ensure that the Competition Tribunal’s remedy order preserves the pre-merger state of competition to prevent the merging parties from accumulating market power and harming the economy, examining the provisions relating to Competition Tribunal decisions to ensure that ensure better compliance with the Competition Bureau’s merger recommendations and empower the Competition Tribunal to make an order terminating a completed merger or prohibiting a continuation of the merger if the merger would result in excessive aggregate market share.

   
   

10. The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada continue to seek and advocate for additional competition in the Canadian food sector to stabilize and lower food prices, particularly by identifying and removing barriers that prevent new businesses from entering the market.

Overall, the report found that high grocery prices are impacting the purchasing power, well-being and food security of Canadian consumers. also confirmed the need to develop such a code of conduct for foodstuffs and stressed the urgent need for all parties to unite and fully commit to its current version.

Additionally, the Commission heard from a number of witnesses that Canadian competition law should be strengthened to give the Competition Bureau greater powers to prevent further consolidation and increase the competitiveness of the sector by creating a regulatory environment that facilitates the entry of new competitors, such as independents and foreign grocers.