True Patriot Love - Food Prices Are Rising… But Why Is Canada Paying More？

00:00:00.000 This to me feels like a scam in a lot of ways.

00:00:03.040 I get it.

00:00:03.600 It has to come here.

00:00:04.520 But the cost by the time it gets here, it's obviously marked up in Ontario,

00:00:09.620 not just the processing and shipping,

00:00:11.420 but there's a mark up there that Albertans probably didn't bargain for.

00:00:19.720 This is tplmedia.ca, tplmedia.ca local,

00:00:23.780 because we're now in your neighborhood likely, so check that out.

00:00:27.860 And please don't forget to subscribe.

00:00:29.420 support the network it's super cheap and you become part of the conversation today the conversation

00:00:36.380 is while it's on the tip of everyone's tongue a couple of weeks ago the prime minister came out

00:00:41.240 with a national strategy for food and to kind of dig deeper on that and see where we stand

00:00:46.920 our very own food professor thank you very much paul micucci for joining us we've had the food

00:00:53.240 professor uh on before yeah yeah i won't uh proclaim to be the food professor but i do you

00:00:59.460 know what i think i mentioned on previous shows mike uh i grew up and i worked actually at a

00:01:05.080 place called kanda packers which is a food processing plant in toronto and it was very

00:01:11.620 interesting experience when my uh when i was young paint the picture for me because that seems to me

00:01:16.520 like a tough job so 5 000 people basically would go to work in this plant and uh it was right by

00:01:23.840 the stockyards which is on saint claire avenue down in toronto um rail cars would come in the

00:01:29.140 cattle would come off it would go to the kill and then basically they would you know go to slaughter

00:01:34.380 and then from slaughter it would actually go into the line they would you know cut up uh you know

00:01:40.860 cattle into every piece you can imagine and use every piece um and then the hinds of beef would

00:01:47.820 be put into the freezers uh and then loaded onto trucks and then there was bacon there was uh

00:01:55.340 cold meats there was cheese there was all kinds of different divisions that were and then uh guns

00:02:01.180 road which is on the back is where the hooves and all the other things were melted down so the smell

00:02:08.220 yeah it was a tough neighborhood to be in well it's gone now it is yeah it's gone now and quite

00:02:13.580 frankly there's a whole story to that because it actually became a housing development that

00:02:17.740 was built on top of it which i don't i don't even know how but it was and quite frankly

00:02:23.100 i know i'm not living there anytime soon no that neighborhood still has a certain stench to it i'll

00:02:27.180 be honest with you at times yeah well guns road still exists so there still are some food processing

00:02:32.700 or there's still some uh things happening on the back with respect to leather and and okay

00:02:37.980 animals so there is a slight smell not even compared to what it was before but you know i

00:02:43.440 used to get out of my car and it was just wretched you know the first half hour just about to be sick

00:02:48.500 yeah uh going in and we used to go in so interesting and i'll tie it up but it was an

00:02:53.880 interesting story we used to go through and we used to get our whites um and it was uh it was

00:03:00.000 basically a jacket a white jacket white pants and uh because i had graduated from the kill area the

00:03:06.760 stockyards where they used to bring the cattle over into and the kill line into night loading

00:03:12.260 i used to get this white hat and it was because you're working in a freezer all night right so

00:03:17.860 it was warm clothes um and i used to start off and i used to get my meat hooks so they give me

00:03:23.500 my meat i everyone got two meat hooks who worked in loading and all night long uh the guy would

00:03:29.820 be up on a perch and you would walk over and it'd be the number on it for the truck you were loading

00:03:35.720 and you would put your meat hooks in

00:03:37.700 and he would knock the hind of beef off onto your shoulder

00:03:41.520 and you would carry it across the loading dock

00:03:44.880 and drop it into the trucks all night.

00:03:47.280 So you do eight to 10 hours a night.

00:03:49.380 That's pretty manual labor.

00:03:51.060 That was really manual labor.

00:03:52.880 Carrying beef on your shoulder is a heavy job.

00:03:55.740 And there were, you know, it's interesting

00:03:57.040 and that's how strong,

00:03:58.220 so they used to call them the bullhunk gang,

00:04:00.320 which were the guys who did it full-time

00:04:02.580 And they were these little, you know, Eastern European, Italian, these little guys.

00:04:08.940 But they were all muscled, like 100%.

00:04:11.080 And that's what they did all night.

00:04:13.280 And they would joke around throughout the night.

00:04:15.460 And they would actually carry like 100-pound, 150-pound hind of beef with no hands on their shoulders.

00:04:22.420 And they would do all this crazy stuff.

00:04:24.560 And so my dad, which is interesting because my dad, you know, was a truck driver.

00:04:30.040 And he had trucks and worked there.

00:04:31.540 uh and uh basically he would come in and he would show off also and he would grab like two uh 150

00:04:40.780 200 uh pound hinds of beef and he would throw them on each shoulder and he would carry them

00:04:46.120 across the dock and put them on a and that's how strong these guys were because this is dead

00:04:51.040 different era man this is dead weight yeah right so i ate you know you know you think i wouldn't

00:04:57.360 eat red meat but i did eat a lot of red meat because i was around it the whole time and the

00:05:01.500 interesting thing when we got ready for this show i said to uh christoph when we were doing the prep

00:05:07.140 i said out of curiosity what are people in alberta ontario and nova scotia paying for top surlay

00:05:13.840 well on canada day i mean this this is almost a luxury item for canadians now it's priced so high

00:05:21.820 oh yeah well it's crazy because i know you know whether and i'm not even talking here's the thing

00:05:26.820 I'm not even talking grass-fed.

00:05:29.360 I'm not even talking organic.

00:05:31.540 I'm just a...

00:05:31.980 Just regular store processed.

00:05:34.220 Chemically stimulated, chemically grown cattle, right?

00:05:38.180 Which, you know, they don't even get any regular grass, right?

00:05:41.880 So you're paying $30.

00:05:44.740 So in Alberta, they're paying $30 a kilogram.

00:05:49.300 What are we paying in Ontario?

00:05:51.380 Well, the interesting thing is we're paying less than Ontario.

00:05:54.520 The beef comes from Alberta, Paul.

00:05:56.180 yeah i know but we're processing it right again this is like oil right or gas oil and gas but this

00:06:03.020 is like the same thing it goes down to montana gets product process we buy it back at a premium

00:06:07.640 so albertans are sending their raw the cattle to ontario or wherever yeah it's being processed and

00:06:14.560 they're buying it back at higher than we're paying retail rates for the cattle that came from that

00:06:19.100 province yeah i don't know i don't know if they actually talk about it a lot in alberta and the

00:06:23.160 west coast but why are they paying higher rates per kilogram than we are in ontario that's that's

00:06:28.420 remarkable so which is crazy and uh nova scotia quite frankly the same now nova scotia makes

00:06:35.260 sense the east coast a little bit because the logistics to get there i understand that but the

00:06:39.920 west coast quite frankly the logistics can't be that difficult right it's not that far especially

00:06:45.260 when it's coming from there so i don't know why it's not like four or five dollars cheaper but

00:06:49.920 But that logistics cost must be so huge, or it's being justified that way.

00:06:55.400 Ground beef, ground beef, the same.

00:06:57.380 So having a hamburger in Alberta is just as expensive

00:07:00.340 as having a hamburger on the East Coast.

00:07:03.140 Ontario, it's cheaper.

00:07:04.480 It's cheaper by about $2.

00:07:06.640 Processed, volume, distribution.

00:07:08.840 Exactly.

00:07:09.480 Right.

00:07:10.060 Hot dogs.

00:07:10.840 But you think, sorry, I'm so sorry,

00:07:12.300 but you think that that would be still not enough

00:07:16.440 to make it more expensive than its source province. 0.58

00:07:19.920 yeah that to me is just ridiculous i mean you're factoring in this to me feels like a scam in a

00:07:28.640 lot of ways i get it it has to come here yeah but the cost by the time it gets here it's obviously

00:07:34.560 marked up in ontario not just the processing and shipping but there's a mark up there that albertans

00:07:40.720 probably didn't bargain for yeah i was shocked but we were out and remember that was the

00:07:46.320 interesting thing our trip out to calgary and when we were eating in restaurants it was the same

00:07:53.040 price it was yeah so we were going to steak houses we were having you know great barbecue

00:07:58.320 it was the same or more than we would pay in toronto so we weren't finding any incremental

00:08:03.840 difference in food costs from a restaurant perspective so obviously the restaurants

00:08:08.080 weren't passing down any savings they were getting if they and they're not but it doesn't i don't

00:08:12.640 don't think they are anything so they were eating the two dollar extra kilogram and charging market

00:08:18.480 rate what you'd pay in any major city in canada you know it's interesting that you say this is

00:08:24.320 uh albertans you're right i don't hear this from them we hear it about oil and gas and frankly the

00:08:29.080 last time i was in calgary about less than a month ago gas was almost the same price that it was in

00:08:35.060 any other province and i was shocked i thought to myself wow that's that's remarkable i get it now

00:08:40.400 now in albertans complain i'm starting to get it i know me too well you know it's funny because we

00:08:45.420 did that show where we went through across the nation and we looked at uh the price per liter

00:08:50.440 of gas remember and we went to the middle east and we're like you guys corrected me on the show

00:08:54.380 which i was astonished i was so wrong you guys like it's six cents a liter and stuff and i'm

00:08:58.880 like six cents you guys are crazy i was at like 80 cents and you're like no it's six and i'm like

00:09:03.740 and you were right and when i when we dug into it and i was like oh that's crazy you know you come

00:09:08.540 to the west coast of canada same price we're paying everywhere else so food's just one of

00:09:14.220 those markers that there's no benefit to being any particular place in canada real estate's really the

00:09:18.840 last passion for that and even it's not making that big a difference now yeah well and so the

00:09:23.960 interesting when we dug into it a little further then we dig into it a little further and what do

00:09:29.080 we find food inflation in canada is actually the highest in the g7 so we are one of the lowest

00:09:36.620 producing countries in the g7 our gdp is garbage and our food inflation is the highest in the g7

00:09:42.620 yeah so you know if you look at it we've seen basically in grocery stores year over year we've

00:09:50.460 seen a 4.3 increase so the highest again the highest food inflation amongst the g7 countries

00:09:58.060 and then you look at things like that are going up astronomically and and i don't need a lot of

00:10:02.460 these quite frankly uh because the diet i'm on but i was shocked tomatoes how tomatoes have gone up

00:10:08.300 like 45 percent carrots i do know it's actually up almost 17 percent uh grapes i don't i don't

00:10:15.900 know about you do you ever have i pass grapes in the grocery store i don't even look at it they're

00:10:20.460 not even on the list anymore no it's just because i'm afraid to put them on the scale

00:10:26.620 cherries and grapes i tell you grocery guys here's here's a secret for all those people in the

00:10:31.260 grocery business you got to find a better way to do that because quite frankly i don't even let my

00:10:35.580 kids throw them in the bat in the cart anymore because if they do and i get there and i actually

00:10:40.540 put like it on the scale and then he says 14 yeah yeah 14 it's like 23 now it's like it's like buying

00:10:47.100 almonds you almost you almost pass out when you buy a bag of almonds now i noticed on the weekend

00:10:51.820 uh bananas were outrageous like we literally we i think that ow and i am part simian paul i need

00:10:58.780 my bananas up up 12 but you know remember the 99 cent uh banana days like you would buy bananas for

00:11:07.100 your kids we used to my mother chris i remember since being a kid she used to load up the cart

00:11:11.900 with bananas because it has potassium yeah and some you know and some good uh vitamins for you

00:11:17.500 and it'll fill you up yeah and mom they're 99 they're 99 cents that's why you're buying them

00:11:21.980 right yeah mom doesn't have that option now yeah make a salad up 10 right so you know which i do

00:11:29.320 notice all your lettuces now are ridiculous boston lettuce at six dollars a head is insane

00:11:36.020 canned salmon is on the list here yeah canned meats have been a standby in this country

00:11:44.880 for senior citizens for people on low budgets yeah for people who need to extend their dollars

00:11:50.600 To see a rise of 14, almost 14.5% in one year, Paul, that's unmanageable for seniors, for people on a budget, for students, for people who need this kind of protein in their diet.

00:12:05.680 And the oils and all the nutrients that come from salmon, it's a good filler in people's diet that we're letting it rise, that we're letting carrots go up almost 17%.

00:12:16.060 Whole chicken.

00:12:18.680 Yeah.

00:12:19.160 oh chicken's crazy we have a shortage of chicken right remember this story we we talked about it a

00:12:24.600 few weeks ago how do we end up having a shortage of chicken um i was at a meeting uh and someone

00:12:31.520 it was a very good friend of mine mentioned to me they they're related to a food bank that they

00:12:37.840 needed 6100 kilograms of chicken that they're going to be short over the next three months

00:12:45.240 so if I could get my hands on it.

00:12:47.020 And I'm like, where am I getting chicken?

00:12:48.880 Where am I going to get chicken?

00:12:50.000 Yeah, I think, I don't know what you're going to do.

00:12:51.680 And I just shrugged.

00:12:52.960 But once again, it's one of those basics, right?

00:12:54.920 Oh, yeah, but they need it for the business

00:12:57.440 or, you know, the charity they're in.

00:12:59.120 And I'm like, I'm sorry, but I can't help you with this one.

00:13:01.560 No, and when the charities are searching for food

00:13:04.080 that supply food to people,

00:13:05.740 that's a really desperate moment.

00:13:07.560 Yeah, it is, it is.

00:13:09.100 Well, you know, and the interesting part,

00:13:10.580 so then the question becomes why, right?

00:13:13.020 So then you're sitting there and you go,

00:13:14.040 And the first one that jumps to mind when we went through it was the interprovincial trade bearers.

00:13:19.080 You hear this on many products, right?

00:13:21.320 Like wine, booze, beer, and food.

00:13:25.280 So we have the highest food inflation in the G7.

00:13:28.400 And one of the causes, you know, when they dig into it, that the universities and all the experts come up with are interprovincial trade bearers.

00:13:36.240 But remember a couple of months ago when we see all these premier meetings and all these premiers were sitting around,

00:13:41.020 and they were doing kind of the Donald Trump thing

00:13:43.700 where they'd sign the MOU,

00:13:46.260 where they put the black in with the black pen.

00:13:48.840 It was like they received a charity check.

00:13:50.800 Yeah, exactly.

00:13:51.820 And they're throwing up the peace sign

00:13:54.020 and the little bit of the sign.

00:13:57.100 What happened?

00:13:59.140 Like, what happened to that?

00:14:00.460 Like, we don't hear much about it anymore.

00:14:02.140 They were all goodwill gestures,

00:14:03.380 but they didn't reduce our food costs.

00:14:06.060 Supply management and agriculture.

00:14:08.000 has not been addressed at all hasn't been addressed at all when we were in the west

00:14:15.120 recently you talked to the farmers there and uh they have crops that are unusable now because

00:14:21.520 they sit too long they have uh purchase orders for items that don't make it on time they pay

00:14:27.040 the penalty yeah so yeah it seems like our our supply chain is a little broken now the prime

00:14:34.240 minister a couple weeks ago came out with his what did he call it his national food strategy

00:14:38.740 yeah food security strategy it's a national 3.2 billion it was it was actually budgeted we we

00:14:45.660 didn't hit on it um it wasn't laid out very or you know in much detail in the budget it was a line

00:14:52.320 item we did hit on it when we did the budget show yeah but he came out and they started to

00:14:57.260 articulate some items you know it's it still needs some work quite frankly um but you know it had

00:15:03.820 it does have some good things well the one thing he did say is like expanding food terminals is

00:15:08.740 key to building a stronger more resilient canadian food system he argues that food logistics are now

00:15:14.040 a matter of national security and the reason for that is because of wars climate change

00:15:19.500 yeah shifting trade and supply chain disruptions so i don't know that once again i hear these

00:15:27.300 numbers now three billion but the problem is i hear when three billion just disappears and i

00:15:33.100 hear that you know 27 billion went to this nation and three billion doesn't sound like we're really

00:15:38.740 making a commitment if i was to be honest with you paul to our food security no well considering

00:15:43.860 considering how much money uh canadians i was looking up the stat we actually uh spend more

00:15:51.020 on food per capita than americans do so so because of our food costs yeah so our food costs being so

00:15:58.760 high we we have you know uh there's a you know that tax date so there's a there's a tax period

00:16:07.960 when you fall into the black for the first time and you're like you stop paying the government

00:16:12.120 you start making your own money yeah so tax freedom day yeah tax freedom day yeah june 9th

00:16:17.640 okay right so if you do the same kind of uh calculation uh dahousie ag food analytics lab

00:16:26.440 came out and said that the same date for food freedom day is march 21st oh my god right which

00:16:35.080 is after 80 days so you look at it and you say okay i don't get tax free till june 9th and i

00:16:41.480 don't get food free till uh 80 days into uh the year so that's what i spend on my food budget

00:16:48.840 which is two weeks later than america so i thought that was very interesting to look so

00:16:55.160 you know americans who are actually you know complaining like heck right now about

00:17:00.920 their food costs and their gas prices but we're pretty quiet all right let's just take a second

00:17:06.200 and have a look at a few moments from what the prime minister delivered to us

00:17:11.000 just a couple of weeks ago on the national food security strategy for canada within four years

00:17:16.840 our strategy targets increasing the number of independent grocers buying from food

00:17:21.960 terminals or hubs such as this by 15 percent 15 percent

00:17:31.400 and to boost local food sales from small and mid-sized producers by 25 percent so we're setting

00:17:38.680 ourselves specific targets and we're putting the investment behind to achieve them with our strategy

00:17:44.600 the government will first create more choice and competition here in canada we'll provide

00:17:50.360 $1 billion over 10 years to establish a new 10-year food link fund. Starting right here

00:17:59.580 at the Ontario food terminal, this fund will expand existing food terminals and start construction

00:18:06.660 on two new ones by the end of 2028. We will also work to create 40 new commercial food hubs across

00:18:14.860 the country, right across Canada, bringing food closer to market, lowering distribution

00:18:21.580 costs and helping Canadians save at the checkout with high-quality Canadian food.

00:18:26.620 And we're going to make sure that there's competition in the sector.

00:18:31.020 We're going to give the Competition Bureau more resources to identify, prevent and combat

00:18:37.260 unfair business practices.

00:18:40.140 For consumers, we're going to crack down on surveillance pricing.

00:18:44.740 We're amending privacy legislation to protect consumer data, your data, so companies can

00:18:50.320 no longer use it to charge you higher prices.

00:18:55.560 The second big thing is boosting domestic food production right across the country.

00:19:01.620 Because for decades, we've been paying other countries to convert what we already have

00:19:05.940 into what we need.

00:19:07.240 I'll use Thailand as an example. Great place to go and visit. We love Thailand.

00:19:12.180 70% of what we ship there, our wheat, our soybeans, our peas, is processed in Thailand and then re-exported in global markets, sometimes back to ourselves.

00:19:24.580 In effect, we're spending hundreds of millions of dollars to send our food elsewhere for processing that could be done at home.

00:19:31.040 So to help Canadian businesses grow, produce, and process more food in Canada, we're launching another $1 billion fund through Farm Credit Canada.

00:19:42.440 We'll also establish a $150 million food security fund to support small and medium-sized businesses in upgrading the critical equipment so that they can make more, store more, and bring more Canadian food to market.

00:20:01.040 We'll establish and create a $100 million collaborative food innovation fund

00:20:06.960 to help producers expand processing so more of each crop is used here

00:20:13.840 because we have the talent and the resources, and now we're going to build the capacity.

00:20:21.820 The third pillar is to grow more produce all year round.

00:20:27.400 That's going to cost some money for the capital investment,

00:20:30.220 So we're investing $750 million in greenhouses and hydroponics to dramatically expand Canada's capacity to produce fresh fruit and vegetables year-round.

00:20:44.040 This includes a $100 million investment to help northern and rural communities produce more food locally via small-scale indoor farms and basically reducing their dependence on shipments from thousands of kilometers away.

00:21:00.220 And finally, we'll look to lower costs by cutting red tape across the agricultural supply chain.

00:21:10.220 Because right now, and this is a highly innovative sector, right now farmers and producers often wait years for approvals, for new pesticides, for fertilizers, seeds and feed that they need to grow and produce food efficiently.

00:21:26.440 So to build the food system that Canadians deserve, we need to get out of our own way.

00:21:33.960 We'll modernize key regulations so that food security and affordability are considered alongside of safety.

00:21:41.580 We'll speed up approvals for seeds, feeds, fertilizers, veterinary products, and reduce backlogs that slow down the system.

00:21:49.100 But once again, you know, the prime minister stands up there with all these leaders in the food industry and a bunch of ministers,

00:21:54.260 and they say, okay, we've got this plan.

00:21:56.880 This is one of the ones.

00:22:00.500 He highlights Canada's agricultural strengths with this group,

00:22:04.720 pointing out that one in nine jobs is tied to agri-food

00:22:07.300 and over $100 billion in exports,

00:22:10.220 world-leading production of canola, wheat, and lentil.

00:22:13.000 So $100 billion is our export,

00:22:16.140 but $3 billion is all we're putting to create a national fix.

00:22:20.320 it seems like there might be room in there for us to actually take care of ourselves a little

00:22:25.860 better oh yeah well we just hit on it right processing hubs yeah like right off the top

00:22:31.460 of the show we're joking around about canada not joking we're lamenting about canada day

00:22:36.680 and the cost of barbecuing our canada day dinners is was insane this year yeah i know i looked at my

00:22:42.860 bills i'd my wife's birthday the weekend before and then i had canada day um and a couple other

00:22:48.560 things going on i'm like holy cow already this summer my food bills have been off the hook

00:22:53.840 because of the parties i'm having and the barbecues and everything going on have you noticed

00:22:57.960 in your neighborhood less barbecue smell than ever before i have none so honestly i'm the only

00:23:03.200 one barbecuing this year i don't see anyone there's uh on my block there's 20 homes on my

00:23:08.840 side of the street there's only one other group but yeah there's a young couple that do a lot of

00:23:14.260 outdoor sports stuff i noticed they do things but other than that it's like a ghost town down in my

00:23:19.820 backyards this year yeah i noticed uh all of my you know i could smell what my neighbor was

00:23:25.580 yeah easily my neighbors i i would be out in the yard hungry yeah it's just not happening anymore

00:23:32.760 and barbecuing last night one of my neighbors said i don't know what you were barbecuing but

00:23:37.920 it sure smelled good i don't remember anybody commenting on other people's barbecues before

00:23:42.300 but it's a luxury to us now who thought that a barbecue would be a luxury yeah oh i know well

00:23:49.360 we never did right it was just part of our cult sunday sunday everyone came over you came back

00:23:54.100 home you know to see your family we had a big cookout at the backyard it's diminishing all

00:23:58.720 that food prices are diminishing us getting together because i don't know if you charge

00:24:03.100 a ticket price when the family comes over for steak i certainly don't i eat that price yeah

00:24:08.520 but people aren't taking that risk anymore i don't think they don't want to well it's funny you know

00:24:13.080 it's interesting because i went to get ready uh for uh the birthday and i went into the grocer

00:24:21.480 and i know the butcher quite well and i said to him what do you got today and he said i said i'm

00:24:25.160 having a party i need a bunch buy a bunch of steaks he said how many you mean i said well i

00:24:29.880 need about eight or nine you know because a lot of them don't eat meat so quite frankly you know

00:24:35.640 that's for i can slice it up and i intermix it with the other parts of the meal and i barbecued

00:24:40.520 like for four hours that day um so you know he said to me he said then you got to go australian

00:24:46.680 why and we started laughing and i'm sitting there and i'm thinking to myself i said so i don't buy

00:24:53.080 canadian beef and he says oh he said no one would buy canadian beef you buy you buy australian number

00:24:58.920 one it's better and he said it's because it's mostly grass-fed he said it's produced uh an open

00:25:05.560 fields right and he says production cost and he says uh to get it to uh to market is a lot lower

00:25:13.320 and i said it's a lot lower to do cattle raising in australia he says yeah he says the feed cost

00:25:20.600 is lower he says the grazing cost he says the dollar exchange the currency exchange is better

00:25:27.240 he says uh the the australians export more so they're basically more aggressive on the market

00:25:34.760 they uh they do volume pricing in australia oh so they don't have separate so they don't have set

00:25:41.160 prices they don't have all the crazy uh food safety carbon issues that we have because you

00:25:47.320 know cattle farming has some issues safety wise for the environment right sure yeah they don't

00:25:52.360 have all those safety environment regulations um and i'm like okay and then the other one which

00:25:58.520 was interesting he said you know in canada all our fuel and and uh logistics costs are much higher

00:26:05.320 yeah because we so i said they're going to put it on a boat i guess or a container they're going to

00:26:10.920 ship it they have a great trade deal of apparently with canada when they arrive with it right they're

00:26:16.920 going to take it off and they're going to beat us into market on costing for beef he says yeah

00:26:22.840 yeah. And he says, and taste it. It's amazing. I said, so we are the second largest country in

00:26:28.980 the world. All we have is grazing fields everywhere I can see, but yet we're not

00:26:34.920 raising cattle to go to market at a cheaper price. It's arriving, that Australian beef

00:26:41.580 is arriving processed to market. Right. So, so yeah, exactly. Exactly. So that's one of the

00:26:47.600 things actually in the plan in the security strategy the food security strategy of the

00:26:53.720 federal government they're saying let's create um better processing yeah they want capabilities

00:27:00.780 which you're processing logistic yeah logistics once again three billion dollars won't get you

00:27:06.700 much and unfortunately it sounds like a big number but it won't spread across a lot right

00:27:11.000 i don't believe it's it's once again i'm not the accountant on this i find this interesting you

00:27:17.060 gave me a cool list thanks christoph and paul for doing this uh by the way i'll just put this out

00:27:23.380 there when you talk about the the getting to market this i found shocking uh halifax food

00:27:29.500 company reportedly took four weeks to obtain approval in 41 u.s states for their product

00:27:34.500 yeah it took them 15 to 20 months to attain approval across canada and canada is reportedly

00:27:40.700 importing millions of kilograms of chicken from the u.s just to meet the processing demand as

00:27:46.880 pointed out we had a shortage in chicken yeah well it's interesting so uh i've done a show on this

00:27:53.280 before we haven't done much on it we talked about doing a lot of it even packaging by province is

00:28:01.280 different so if you bring a product into canada or if you bring a product across canada you have

00:28:06.800 to package it differently in every single province and you have to meet different requirements for

00:28:13.040 that product so even the logistics of packaging your product throughout canada is different by

00:28:19.600 province so for example you know you have to have uh in in quebec you know you have to have in french

00:28:25.840 you might have to actually have another safety disclaimer when you go into saskatchewan or

00:28:31.840 manitoba you know what i mean like you it's it's it's insane so if you're if you're trying to

00:28:37.680 to distribute a product across the country you're going to hit probably 11 or 12 different

00:28:44.420 pretty substantial barriers so interesting nothing in the plan from the prime minister said

00:28:49.880 anything about dousing that fire that is interprovincial dealings yeah which seems to

00:28:57.960 be the number one could be the number one solution here to come up with a federally regulated system

00:29:03.860 of doing things that applies across the board uh let's look at the food prices across the world

00:29:10.180 compared to canada uh beef we are higher than australia as you point out we're comparable to 0.94

00:29:17.460 australia in almost every other way yep except they kick our ass at mining resources and apparently

00:29:23.540 now feeding us higher production costs winter feeding yeah which is a major deal i guess and 0.89

00:29:29.380 labor costs uh are why canadians are paying more than australia uh this one dairy cheese milk and

00:29:35.140 butter among the highest in the developed countries around the world u.s beats us australia beats us

00:29:40.660 new zealand beats us why supply management right it's been the the achilles heel and the negotiations

00:29:47.540 for kuzma we're hearing about it again you know uh jameson greer you know canada day came out and

00:29:53.460 said hey we're you know we're gonna go year by year big big shocker we predicted that how many

00:29:59.140 shows did we say that kuzma was going to go this way so now we're going down this year by year

00:30:04.320 review to negotiate this is a big issue it's going to sit on the table right milk and dairy

00:30:09.000 have to be dealt with i know i know we keep denying it i know it has a political issues in

00:30:14.600 canada um especially for the you know the liberal party uh but it's here it has to be addressed it

00:30:22.160 it is sitting upon us now take a look at uh chicken eggs by the way i'm not sure which came

00:30:27.180 first uh and uh fresh fruits yep united states is is a much better deal uh on all of those

00:30:36.000 australia and new zealand as well and on fresh fruits and grapes uh berries grapes and things

00:30:40.840 like that uh california and mexico of course now yeah here's the thing supply chain and short

00:30:47.900 growing season are the reason on all of the ones i just named right now now part of the the food

00:30:55.600 security strategy that he came up with the vertical farming and the greenhouse farming

00:31:00.020 they did put about 700 mil 750 million into okay so hey listen that's it's a good start it should

00:31:07.860 have been something we were aggressively doing years ago it's something a decade ago we were

00:31:13.480 looking at i don't know why paul i thought that we had already addressed seasonal growing in in

00:31:17.640 canada uh because it's such an obvious one that we could have taken care of years ago it is well

00:31:22.220 Well, it's already developed, you know, the genetics and the geognomes and everything you have to deal with to get actually fruits and vegetables and greenhouse production is already done.

00:31:33.860 It's already known.

00:31:34.760 It's already been developed.

00:31:36.280 Right.

00:31:36.560 It's here.

00:31:37.320 It's done.

00:31:38.260 You should have adopted it.

00:31:39.180 Well, you know, I just did a show with a gentleman from Israel, and it was actually a really interesting show.

00:31:45.580 it was supposed to be on supply management and we spent probably a half hour on the show talking

00:31:51.280 about how they actually grow their vegetables and they've been doing this quite frankly effectively

00:31:58.180 for the whole country and have an oversupply of fruit and vegetables through vertical farming

00:32:03.600 and greenhouse and they've been doing it for decades it's not something that's new no they've

00:32:08.580 they've even even outdoor farming now is they've taken on uh new ways to uh i think it's called

00:32:14.700 perma farming or terra farming where they actually can create in arid areas beautiful growing spots

00:32:23.420 yep so we i think we could be doing that i mean 750 million again it sounds like a good start but

00:32:30.280 i'm not sure what a greenhouse costs it sounds like those could be you know in the hundreds of

00:32:34.780 millions to build something effective that would feed our nation yeah but you're right it's a it's

00:32:38.960 good start seafood now we have some of the best deals on you know we have amazing fishing

00:32:46.520 we do territories we have really good supply we've managed it back on the lobster front and 0.72

00:32:52.660 some of the seafood front very nicely and yet somehow even Norway is kicking our butt and the

00:32:59.320 reason for this again processing and disruption in retail which means that retail pricing is not

00:33:07.840 standardized in this in this food and the market fluctuates a lot which means that to compete in

00:33:15.100 the marketplace you can be losing as a seafood supplier and then add the supply chain the

00:33:21.360 distribution to it on top uh norway is uh paying a great deal less on seafood than we are and we

00:33:29.260 have the almost identical seafood stock and access yeah do you ever do you ever see interesting you

00:33:36.680 see butchers do you ever see seafood stores so a few weeks ago i'm glad you asked this question

00:33:41.960 a few weeks ago i went looking for a seafood distributor just yeah just wanted to get seafood

00:33:47.660 they don't really exist anymore you you a fish market is not really fish markets we used to

00:33:55.600 tell stories about fish markets yeah you know we used to do team building around people throwing

00:34:01.600 fish to each other in seattle remember that that story about i can't remember the store but they

00:34:06.440 they would yeah they would toss the fish across the guy would catch it yeah yeah so where did

00:34:12.980 those go i ended up i don't know but the one seafood distributor that i found uh wasn't ready

00:34:18.820 to serve customers at the door they were only for uh wholesale right so yeah that that element of

00:34:24.760 getting great fresh food outside of metro or fortinos or whatever seems to be disappearing

00:34:29.760 even down east yeah well they got bought up they got bought out they got bought up they closed they

00:34:36.320 were you know mom and pop stores and there there hasn't been an ability through regulation and

00:34:41.600 costing and and rents and everything else going on in canada for small uh dedicated retailers to

00:34:48.700 open up and he they address that in in the food strategy they actually talk about it they talk

00:34:54.160 about the fact that we need to make the staples competitive again and they put some money aside

00:34:59.900 they actually have 1 billion for independent grocers in this oh okay but who's gonna step

00:35:06.460 into you know again how do you compete okay so i see two new uh markets in my neighborhood yeah

00:35:12.780 and all i think every day is i don't know how they're staying business yeah no it's a it could

00:35:18.460 be with the big chains now who have pretty much bought up and they you know they own your they

00:35:22.860 own your discount store they own your regular store they own your premium store they own your

00:35:28.460 pharmacy they've got you tied to your bank to your uh visa they've got they're tied into point

00:35:33.900 systems and loyalty systems that everybody's i don't know it's too far ahead you know they

00:35:39.900 the competitive advantage was given too early and they good you know good for them they left too far

00:35:44.700 ahead they're never going to surrender it and quite frankly for someone from a mom-and-pop

00:35:49.180 store to open up a corner fishery store or fish store that's a pretty tough run right i really

00:35:54.940 don't know how it's feasible anymore truthfully and those are where you get the best foods okay

00:35:58.940 uh another one do you find this shocking i thought that we processed our own sugar

00:36:03.660 quite efficiently in canada i thought red path was uh of course with the red path down on on

00:36:08.700 the lake shore is gone yeah um for many years but we have a very small refining industry for

00:36:15.980 sugar here in canada yeah if anyone ever wants you know interesting story i'm not going to get

00:36:20.460 into today the story of red past sugar if anyone ever wants to read about it and why it disappeared

00:36:27.580 is a very interesting story it's part of canadian history that i think everyone should look at

00:36:32.220 because it ties to sports in toronto it ties to all kinds of things and it's in very there's a

00:36:39.420 book i think that is written about this let's do the show yeah this show is a great story and and

00:36:44.140 how sugar you know it's like the book salt but sugar was a big scandal in canada uh especially

00:36:50.460 uh to do with sports and so interesting story but okay well let's let's the fact that we don't do it

00:36:56.300 anymore and and the fact that we pay we pay so much money for it is insane it is one of the

00:37:01.900 highest costs in the food processing we were pretty much the world leader in it at one point

00:37:06.780 really yes and we just let it go christophe let's put a pin in that one we want to do that show for

00:37:11.660 sure yeah processed food typically 20 10 to 20 higher than the u.s our market size transportation

00:37:20.220 i see trucks on the road constantly i don't know what they're hauling and less retail competition

00:37:24.940 well and and the fact that we ship our raw materials to the u.s to process and ship it back

00:37:29.900 to us so most processed food gets made in america bigger market quite frankly so i can build a bigger

00:37:35.820 plant um but you'd wonder why again logistically with all the transportation costs and everything

00:37:42.220 you couldn't do it here more economically even even because of the size of the

00:37:47.980 population you still should be able to do it at scale well other countries are in the g7 apparently

00:37:54.540 exactly some effectiveness exactly where does this in your mind paul where does all of this

00:38:01.020 leave canada and in the coming days we've got the prime minister promising us a new plan um

00:38:07.420 with a billion three billion 3.2 billion i think being allocated to it where do you think this

00:38:13.020 leaves us well it's interesting because you know there's a couple you have you have the plan and

00:38:19.660 you also have the competition bureau looking at why we can't compete right so you have that going

00:38:27.580 on at the same time now what are the findings so far on that like are there is it once again

00:38:32.300 the same obvious supply chain well it was announced that they're going to look into it

00:38:36.380 it's not going to be completed until 2027 the report so we won't know so we're going to and

00:38:42.300 that's part of the problem we're moving too slow right you know we're saying okay we have a food

00:38:46.300 we have a food affordability problem let's get a report i don't know why the grocers are doing all

00:38:50.780 this we can't figure out the secrecy behind the deals that are being cut we can't figure out why

00:38:55.420 people can't get into it that's a good so we're gonna go out and study it we're gonna get the

00:38:59.020 competition bureau to look at it and we'll be back in 2027. Canada seems to do this and I don't want

00:39:05.060 to by the way I'm not harping on Canada I'm very proud of how we do many things but one thing I

00:39:10.120 think we do is we react like magpies oh yeah oh there's a shiny thing over there we got to go

00:39:16.140 there yeah then we get there and we mill about well here's a good example what's it 15 weeks to

00:39:23.820 get it a product on the market in canada four to six weeks in the u.s we're never going to make

00:39:29.560 moves if that's how fast we move yeah well you know quite frankly we know the staples we know

00:39:36.340 the things that are healthy for our nation yeah we know that we're not processing them so quite

00:39:42.060 frankly let's let's let's figure out a way to stimulate processing in the east west and central

00:39:47.740 canada we do that first we get the food cost down we know where where our food's coming from quite

00:39:53.740 frankly yeah a greenhouse you know vertical farming we know that's the future like we know the

00:40:01.020 this my frustration mike all the time becomes we know the answers we see other people doing it

00:40:08.220 but yeah we look at it and we say to ourselves why you know we better look into this some more

00:40:14.940 we better look into this some more and do a study and then we set aside 3.2 billion dollars we don't

00:40:21.020 put any kpis or guardrails or targets to map against i'm not even sure how much of this is

00:40:28.460 actual cash coming from the bank from the government into the banks of these businesses i

00:40:33.420 i don't know none of us know quite frankly it's just a number that's thrown on the table we never

00:40:37.980 see what the true impacts are and therefore it doesn't translate into anything to come to our

00:40:42.780 tables and then we get the data from the government that excludes things like oh by the way we're

00:40:48.980 really struggling as a g7 country compared to most i've never heard our government say that

00:40:54.940 i've never heard our prime minister say okay we're struggling by comparison to this country this

00:40:58.280 country in this country and we need to make changes right like productivity yeah we don't

00:41:03.200 talk about it we're very happy to talk about a lot of other things now but productivity we never talk

00:41:07.940 about legislation and coding shouldn't we shouldn't we yeah exactly shouldn't we talk about

00:41:12.640 the fact that we have the highest food inflation in the g7 you know our food costs are like number

00:41:17.720 10 out of the g20 um we should talk about all these things we should say why we're we're a large

00:41:24.200 nation with a high capability to farm we do we are we you know second largest land mass we have

00:41:31.200 very fertile soil you know we we have all these things we don't have a huge population we should

00:41:37.140 be feeding them very economically i remember in uruguay the uh prime minister the president i'm

00:41:42.440 sorry i'm not sure which is please don't be offended i i don't know these things but i do

00:41:46.240 remember he was a farmer this at this one uh that's one point in the uruguayan history and

00:41:53.900 his methodology of feeding his own nation first put them back on the map because they started

00:42:01.960 bragging more about the foods they were eating people wanted the products in other countries

00:42:06.380 They found deals in other countries, but they started feeding themselves first at a more affordable rate.

00:42:12.320 People became healthier, more employed, more employable, less health care issues.

00:42:17.860 Yeah.

00:42:18.200 Isn't this a great slogan?

00:42:20.400 Let's feed ourselves first.

00:42:21.920 Yeah.

00:42:22.480 Yeah.

00:42:23.160 Because, you know, as Canadians, we export.

00:42:25.740 So we're a net export of food, of any food.

00:42:28.660 We're a net exporter.

00:42:30.380 Fill our tanks, fill our fridges first. 0.93

00:42:32.880 Yeah.

00:42:33.360 I like it, Mike.

00:42:34.960 When I run for Mary, you know the deal.

00:42:38.240 Paul, thanks for talking about this.

00:42:40.320 Please, your comments on this topic are informative.

00:42:44.740 We just told you one in nine people are employed in the food service processing and farming and supply industry.

00:42:52.840 You're the people that know most about this.

00:42:55.040 Share it with us and we'll bring it to the next show.

00:42:57.100 Paul, thanks.

00:42:57.840 Thanks, Mike.

00:42:58.220 looking for reliable and convenient personal safety products less lethal has you covered

00:43:06.320 as Canada's only authorized Burna distributor we provide a range of products for recreation

00:43:11.100 protection and security explore our Burna launcher lineup including the LE SD TCR and

00:43:16.900 Mission 4 designed for different levels of performance and protection needs we also

00:43:20.360 offer the Banshee personal safety alarm designed to protect children women and vulnerable individuals

00:43:25.540 because your safety is our top priority.

00:43:28.160 Shop now at lesslethal.ca.

True Patriot Love - July 09, 2026

Food Prices Are Rising… But Why Is Canada Paying More？

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript