It seems that in the rarified air on Parliament Hill, people have noticed a nasty smell: food prices rising a lot faster than inflation.
The top people from the three major grocery store companies have been called to testify before the House of Commons agriculture committee to provide some answers about their record profits.
It definitely is food for thought, so to speak, for the average Canadian. Come to think of it, food for thought is all we can afford.
We can speculate that there will be extensive discussions about numbers and statistics, bringing to mind the old line credited to Benjamin Disraeli – “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.”
The hearings will probably result in some carefully crafted explanations focusing on what have become the standard excuses for high food prices – the weather, pandemic-related supply chain issues, and the war in Ukraine. Unprecedented profits can buy some very fancy footwork when it comes to putting a positive spin on something getting the governmental stink eye.
What we do know is the average Canadian is seeing food prices so high they hurt even middle-class people, and companies making huge profits that are not being passed on to farmers or store employees.
It is time for some proverbial “stone soup” – joining forces for some answers that will benefit all of us.
Something is clearly out of balance – so far out of balance that government officials are finally demanding answers from the grocery store companies’ top people.
However, food prices are not the only thing out of balance with the Canadian economy.
The price of fuel has made our daily commute a nightmare in more ways than one during the past few years; we are caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place – unable to afford either astronomically expensive downtown housing or the commute from the suburbs.
That suburban house now comes with monthly mortgage payments higher than a lot of us earn. Many of us have given up on the hope of owning a home. Even rental units in small, rural communities are priced well beyond what people on fixed incomes, pensions and disability can pay.
When a company is making record profits, the marketplace regards it as success, not failure. Profit is not a dirty word – as long as working people can afford a decent standard of living that includes a roof over their heads and food on the table. And therein lies the problem with the present situation. Ordinary working people cannot afford the roof, the table or the food.
There are already calls for more competition, to open up Canada’s markets to foreign agricultural products.
That is one door that should come with a massive “caution” sign. Canada has strict regulations about food safety; other countries… not so much. If we have no problem with melamine (a type of plastic) and a hint of salmonella in the powdered milk, perhaps less red tape and wide-open markets would solve the price problem. Then again, we had strict regulations and safe food before prices got out of whack. The fix for something wrong is not to dispense with what is right.
It appears some of us, including folks on Parliament Hill, are asking if we might have already dispensed with something that has made Canada the envy of the world – our vaunted social safety net. Although Canada is still a very wealthy nation by world standards, communities that never had a problem with homelessness certainly do now. There are people with jobs using food banks on a regular basis, and even living in shelters or camping under bridges.
This defies logic; every street in town has sprouted a proliferation of “help wanted” signs. The law of supply and demand seems to be broken.
It is indeed time to put “stone soup” on the menu, in the form of joining forces to find palatable solutions. Safe, affordable food and a decent, warm place to live are not luxuries, but basic necessities for all Canadians.
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Pauline Kerr is a reporter with Midwestern Newspapers; for comment email pkerr@midwesternnewspapers.com
