Juno News - Carney STILL can’t get food prices under control

00:00:00.000 joining me now is sylvain charlebois better known as the food professor online if you have not yet

00:00:12.540 started following him on x make sure to fix that problem and definitely read his stuff he is often

00:00:18.720 published on things like food prices now sylvain i wanted to start with obviously the cost of food

00:00:27.960 it's a major inflationary problem how does the cost of food in canada and our inflation compare to

00:00:35.780 other countries in particular let's go with maybe the united states yeah this is i mean numbers we

00:00:42.540 got this week uh or rather last week uh were alarming that's when we realized we have a problem

00:00:48.600 so first of all if you look at the g7 we're number one that's 6.2 percent and uh when numbers came out

00:00:55.620 i saw many experts downplaying the 6.2 saying well the gsl day was last year so really the number is

00:01:03.000 what is inflated a little bit but when you actually start uh unpacking the 6.2 percent uh first of all

00:01:10.600 you realize the actual food inflation rate without the gsl day is probably around 4.2 percent which

00:01:17.020 would put us in second place uh right after japan but here's the deal chris in japan 80 percent of

00:01:24.060 what they eat is imported we produce a lot of food in canada and compared to the u.s that's really the

00:01:30.940 biggest shock for me uh given the fact that the united states right now has a tariff happy president

00:01:38.920 really i mean when you tariff things it does cost more for your citizens their food inflation rate is

00:01:46.440 at 3.1 percent half of ours that's a pretty so if that's not a wake-up call for you know policymakers and

00:01:56.920 everyone else i don't know what is really it's a major problem now you do a lot of work obviously

00:02:04.120 analyzing what's going on with our food our food production costs all of that you're there you're in

00:02:09.760 halifax you're at the university of delhousie in ottawa they would call that streets delhousie but that's

00:02:15.080 okay that's right i know that little little difference there now um let me just play devil's

00:02:20.900 advocate so if the americans have around half of the food inflation cost could that just be the

00:02:27.780 economies of scale i mean they're a bigger country they have more purchasing power like is that why

00:02:34.300 their inflation isn't as bad as our food inflation let's start there i would say so absolutely i mean

00:02:40.120 you have to look at the you have to appreciate the architecture of their food economy versus ours

00:02:44.360 i mean our we're way more more vulnerable than they do that's why i laugh when i when i hear we

00:02:50.800 need to get back to the americans we need to fight this so-called trade war we have strong companies well

00:02:58.640 we have great companies in canada but the scale of many of these companies um is is a challenge in

00:03:06.080 the united states when president trump tells walmart costco and other companies to eat up the tariff well

00:03:12.900 guess what they can if ingredient a goes up in price coming from wherever they can pivot and

00:03:21.540 negotiate a good price coming from another country or another supplier in canada you're basically at the

00:03:27.180 mercy you you often have uh food companies and i've actually visited quite a few of them that are

00:03:33.600 single sourcing so if ingredient a goes up in price because of their buying power well guess what they

00:03:39.760 have to raise prices in order to make a profit so we need to understand that really scaling companies

00:03:47.680 up in canada has been a challenge and now we're we're kind of paying for it on top of other policies

00:03:54.640 that we've actually implemented that actually made our food industry less competitive i wanted to get into

00:04:01.200 carbon taxes uh because you have been one of the few academics who has been brave enough to actually

00:04:08.240 a point out they exist so it's true it's true i have some bruises yes i have some academic bruises

00:04:15.120 for sure imagine in the faculty lounge you're kind of getting it a little bit now um a you're admitting

00:04:20.720 they exist b you're also pointing out that they cost money that if you increase so we have two carbon

00:04:28.720 taxes still yes we got rid of the consumer carbon tax that was good but right now we have two different

00:04:33.520 ones one it's often called the hidden industrial carbon tax that's the one that carney mentioned

00:04:39.600 a lot while he was campaigning okay that's the one he wanted to change that's the one he was

00:04:44.560 referencing when he came out here and signed the mou with daniel smith the premier of alberta

00:04:48.960 and said it's going to be six times higher that is going to be hitting things like fuel refineries

00:04:56.240 okay utility companies all that stuff energy so exactly so the producers of things like fertilizer

00:05:03.920 and diesel okay that's that one carbon tax the second one is often called the low carbon fuel standard

00:05:11.280 it's been in existence in british columbia for many years that's why their gasoline and diesel

00:05:16.080 prices are usually out to lunch but in canada now it's at about seven cents extra per liter

00:05:21.760 within the next few years it's going to go up to 17 cents extra per liter can you explain from your

00:05:28.720 perspective how things like carbon taxes affect the price of food that we find at the grocery store

00:05:36.960 well i i think right now you just now you did a pretty good job laying uh laying out all of the

00:05:43.040 components all of the factors can that can actually impact the food industry energy is a big deal

00:05:49.040 what's really troubling chris right now is that energy costs haven't been a big issue in north america

00:05:57.680 over the last two years affecting food prices with the exception of canada because we made it

00:06:02.800 a problem because of some because of the carbon tax and and a lot of people out there are saying

00:06:08.320 well farmers are compensated there are there are programs to offset some of these costs but these

00:06:14.400 there are transactional costs on top of that but the compounding effect and this this is actually part

00:06:20.800 of two papers we published in highly rank uh academic journals mind you uh i think it was in 2024 2025

00:06:30.720 last year uh demonstrating that the compounding effect of all of these taxes all these costs are

00:06:39.040 impacting the competitiveness of the industry and therefore uh is impacting uh food prices that we

00:06:46.560 see at the grocery store it's it's very we couldn't get to the coefficient like how much more uh i mean

00:06:54.800 some economists actually did that and frankly i saw some of the studies like trevor tunes out of calgary

00:07:00.720 uh his study was very weak because he used uh well social science data out of assistances canada and

00:07:08.800 that and that that particular database doesn't actually look at different dynamics affecting food

00:07:16.320 prices let's face it a lot of things can affect food prices the weather can impact food prices our

00:07:21.520 behavior can affect food prices so it was a really weak study that was actually funded by e triple c we all

00:07:28.880 know that it's all public and uh but to be honest i'm very concerned about some of these the accumulation

00:07:36.480 of all these policies because it's actually making a difference uh when it comes to competitiveness and

00:07:42.880 that's really important work here competitiveness and efficiencies i actually don't know the answer

00:07:47.920 to this question um are you concerned about the future plans for what i would call a carbon tax tariff

00:07:55.600 um which prime minister mark carney calls a border adjustment mechanism so that is that is something

00:08:02.080 that he mentioned while he was running for leader of the liberal party that is something he mentioned

00:08:05.920 again during the campaign it's right there in the liberal party platform it goes something like this

00:08:11.120 okay prime minister mark carney loves carbon taxes so much that when he looks around the world and he

00:08:16.640 finds a country that doesn't have one it upsets him it upsets him so much that when we import items from

00:08:23.520 a country that doesn't have a carbon tax he's gonna hit it with a carbon tax tariff or a border adjustment

00:08:29.760 mechanism now as far as i can tell i don't think this has been implemented yet from based on the budget

00:08:36.400 it looks like they're planning on implementing it in about two years time is that going to increase the

00:08:42.080 cost of food i mean there's an awful lot of stuff that's on my grocery store shelves the produce

00:08:46.960 that is imported yeah we import for uh anywhere but depending anywhere between 50 to 70 billion

00:08:54.080 dollars worth of food every year in canada especially right now like we're in the middle

00:08:58.640 of winter we do import a lot yeah um actually i was asked the question i think it was last year

00:09:04.320 in parliament actually uh about that concept about that idea and uh i can't comment uh about you know

00:09:11.920 other sectors like cars and i and and clothing and things like that i can only look at food and and

00:09:19.680 and to play around with food and and the carbon tax and and these these mechanism at the border will

00:09:27.360 eventually impact food affordability in canada because margins are so low and uh and in particular

00:09:33.440 if you actually if you're aiming at produce or non-processed foods uh you're you're dealing with

00:09:40.960 you're you're playing with fire because these these sec these sections of the grocery store are very

00:09:46.640 volatile and you you don't want to bring more volatility by asking importers to pay even more

00:09:52.960 money to get some of that food into our country so i i it's the globalist agenda we all know that

00:09:59.200 and there is there is this this conflict this confrontation right now between uh what some people

00:10:06.000 are trying to do uh in in particularly in alberta uh versus the globalist agenda but the globalist

00:10:12.640 agenda is very much about um a top-down approach uh and for the food industry from farm to store

00:10:22.160 it's an incredibly dangerous agenda to follow as far as i'm concerned uh lastly and we really

00:10:28.240 appreciate your time we know how busy you are um lastly you mentioned earlier today on social media

00:10:34.720 your concerns if i can put it that way going into the renegotiation of kusma or what other normal

00:10:39.920 people would call our our trade agreement with the united states um to put things nicely it doesn't

00:10:46.240 seem like it's going so well right now um nobody's talking each other this is it right so i will point

00:10:52.720 out um the taxpayers federation we always want accountable government i will point out that prime

00:10:58.240 minister mark carney largely campaigned on getting a deal with u.s president donald trump

00:11:03.760 here we are more than a year later our concern at the ctf is that it's costing people money that

00:11:10.080 it's costing people money through tariffs it's costing people money through them not having

00:11:14.560 a trade agreement which can affect our price of energy all that stuff that goes into that

00:11:19.280 yeah where is your concern when it comes specifically to food prices maybe how carbon taxes

00:11:25.440 factor into that or tariffs factor into that when they're negotiating a new trade agreement with the

00:11:30.320 united states could this wind up costing us as taxpayers a lot more absolutely i mean the united

00:11:37.200 states is uh is our number one trading partner and and to be honest chris the last the last couple of

00:11:43.840 weeks have made me very very nervous and again i've actually visited a couple of companies uh right

00:11:49.920 here in the atlantic and also in quebec and i'm hearing the same thing a lot of people are nervous because

00:11:56.960 it is our number one trading partner and we saw our prime minister go to davos basically stating a new

00:12:04.880 path for our country away from the united states basically annoying uh high political figures within

00:12:13.520 the trump administration and and they've been very vocal on social media and with media over the last few

00:12:20.480 days uh we've seen the clips so i'd certainly be concerned about that because we can't lose customer

00:12:27.120 we need to make sure that we go back to the to the table and negotiate a good deal once again i i do

00:12:34.800 think that prime minister uh carney the language so going to china is absolutely great i mean sawing

00:12:40.560 that relationship was super important for our farmers and i'm thinking about canola and we're actually

00:12:45.520 shipping to china which is great i mean we need a portal into that big big market absolutely but i

00:12:53.440 think diplomatically he will he went too far by talking about the new world order and this rupture

00:13:00.400 throughout the world and many leaders around the world including uh central banker lagav and prime

00:13:07.040 minister kerner out of the uk they both actually expressed concerns about prime minister's carney's tone

00:13:13.920 that he used at davos and and i share that that concern for sure so i'm hoping that at some point

00:13:19.760 ottawa will will will recognize that the u.s is very important for farmers for agriculture sector

00:13:26.000 and and make sure that we can secure a good deal moving forward lastly last question uh you frequently

00:13:31.760 go to ottawa you will present cases and um depositions uh at committee so you've you've been around

00:13:39.280 in this environment i worked on the hill for a long time so much of government is what we don't see

00:13:46.160 so much of government is not the elected politicians it is the deputy ministers it's the heads of these

00:13:52.000 departments it's the heads of these bureaucracies i need to point out that these deputy ministers these

00:13:59.200 high-ranking head honchos within bureaucracy they're paid like more than three hundred thousand dollars a

00:14:05.280 year they're paid a lot of money including people who are part of our trade delegations so i just

00:14:12.080 wanted to ask you like are there i don't like the term adults in the room because it's insulting

00:14:18.160 are there people who are taking this very seriously who are really working on this this trade deal

00:14:23.600 behind the scenes away from a podium trying to get this fixed because as a taxpayer who's paying

00:14:29.440 these salaries in order to get this deal with our biggest trading partner three billion dollars of

00:14:34.400 trade per day okay i want more results i want more accountability do you are you sensing that there

00:14:40.800 are people who are taking this seriously in ottawa so my world chris is is basically ag and food and

00:14:49.440 and health as well i i get your point and you're absolutely right uh but i would say uh that uh the

00:14:56.800 global affairs team within ag canada okay not global affairs but global affairs within that canada

00:15:04.400 i i've met them and i think they know what they're doing and they know what's at stake and uh i mean

00:15:10.560 for example for example uh they they do acknowledge the fact that supply management is a problem you

00:15:18.000 know and they're game to say that they're not game to say that in public in front of a camera of course

00:15:23.680 but they do understand that it's a problem you know we can't do everything and and keep on protecting

00:15:30.960 uh sectors that are costing a lot of money to canadians i mean we're basically i mean the

00:15:37.440 irony is that you have dairy farmers making more milk more more than ever and they're getting checks

00:15:43.680 from ottawa i mean it doesn't make any sense and global affairs actually knows that and they know that

00:15:50.400 at some point groups like yours for example will will make will continue to make the government

00:15:56.000 accountable and at some point kings will understand that your argument actually makes a whole lot of

00:16:00.560 sense and it's it's no longer sustainable to continue to do what we're doing with supply

00:16:06.320 management we got to make some changes when it comes to things like these carbon taxes these tariffs

00:16:12.000 all of these trade deals um i'm really hoping because we hear from taxpayers all the time we hear

00:16:16.800 from people who've been working their whole lives and they can't afford things at the grocery store

00:16:22.640 between if i may chris just going back to this week's announcement with the gst credit

00:16:28.720 i mean again we saw a prime minister in a grocery store with no prices on products by the way in the

00:16:34.960 background i don't know if you noticed that i think i need to go to that grocery store in ottawa

00:16:40.560 and buy some food because apparently it's free but but uh we saw a prime minister announcing uh

00:16:48.400 a 12 billion dollar uh investment if you want to call it that way uh an expense giving to 12 million

00:16:56.720 canadians and i'm not saying that they don't need it they absolutely need that money yes but it's not in

00:17:03.600 the budget like who's going to pay for this and not one that day in front of the prime minister not

00:17:10.240 one single reporter asked the question how are we going to fund this not one only two days later we

00:17:17.760 saw one reporter asked a question to someone else in cabinet now that to me is why we're in trouble

00:17:26.080 yeah because people don't realize that it's just piling on more we're not asking their tough questions

00:17:30.560 you do but you guys do but on the hill i don't know like a lot of a lot of people are just sleep

00:17:37.280 walking right now and so we need to make these people accountable it is a bit of a bubble and

00:17:41.440 it's hard to get messages through um i'm so glad uh that you were able to join us here on the fighter

00:17:47.280 on juno news uh where can people find your work the most quickly well i have a podcast it's actually

00:17:53.840 pretty darn popular so we're happy about that it's called the food professor of course so it's on every

00:17:59.040 week so we had an episode a week we have a fresh new episode today uh this morning and of course i'm on

00:18:04.640 x the food professor and linkedin as well sylvain charlebois thank you so much for your time today

00:18:10.720 take care chris once again that is sylvain charlebois you can find him on x under the food

00:18:16.880 professor he often goes to parliament hill to present his data when it comes to things like

00:18:21.680 agriculture how we grow and purchase and distribute food in this country here in canada i strongly

00:18:29.280 recommend you go check him out now you may not agree with everything he just said and that is okay

00:18:34.960 okay it is really important to get experts on who know their stuff who have their data who have their

00:18:41.520 numbers who are unafraid to hold government to account no matter what color jersey that government

00:18:49.920 be it federal or provincial happens to be wearing because at the end of the day it's the government

00:18:56.640 that is deeply affecting your ability to afford the basics of life reminder more than 40 percent of

00:19:04.640 your income is gone out the door in the form of taxes through various levels of government that is

00:19:12.080 of course the annual report put out by the folks at the fraser institute i want you to do a quick little

00:19:17.920 imagination exercise here picture the money that you get in your account if you're paid salary every two

00:19:25.760 weeks think of that amount that you typically get almost double it what could you do personally with

00:19:34.640 that kind of money could you afford more nutritious food could you afford to put your kids in some sort

00:19:40.880 of tutoring or maybe baseball or something like could you pay down that line of credit could you save up

00:19:46.480 for a house could you afford a better apartment to rent ask yourself what nearly doubling your amount of

00:19:54.560 money that lands in your bank account every month would actually do for your family that's about how

00:20:00.800 much various levels of government take from you in the form of taxes that's why i asked sylvain about

00:20:06.800 what kind of products do you think we are getting as taxpayers when it comes to these bureaucrats whose job

00:20:13.360 it is to do things like make sure we don't have big punishing tariffs make sure we're getting a trade deal

00:20:19.680 with our biggest trading partner make sure that we're not doing stupid things like hitting ourselves

00:20:24.560 with carbon taxes it's a really strong question because at the end of the day you're the one paying

00:20:30.080 the freight hey folks remember uh to always tune in here to juno news when you want to find out what's

00:20:36.400 happening with things like carbon taxes and how it affects things like food prices if you haven't done so

00:20:42.240 yet be sure to like this video subscribe to the youtube channel and head on over to juno news and sign up

Juno News - February 06, 2026

Carney STILL can’t get food prices under control

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