Shadowing Practice: Prime Minister Carney launches Canada’s National Food Security Strategy - Learn English Speaking with Video

It is a great pleasure to be here.

Let me say, it is great to be back in Etobicoke, James.

I'm going to endorse that.

Not necessarily best riding in the country.

Obviously, we all have our own riding.

It's Nepean for me.

But my brother lives in Etobicoke.

I spent a lot of time here over the decades.

And it is a great place.

And you're making it even better.

But this is, in many respects, the heart of Etobicoke and it's the link to,

as you say, the kitchen table across the GTA and beyond.

I'm a little concerned that we're here at the Ontario Food Terminal late in the day

because when you're here at 2 and 2.30 in the morning, 5 o'clock in the afternoon is late in the day.

You're going to be turning around.

So, Ron, thank you.

Let me also thank John Franco for hosting us, everybody.

for being here and what you're doing, what you do every day.

70 years the Ontario Food Terminal has been at the heart of the food chain in Ontario.

Nicknamed the Stock Exchange, terminal that connects 5,000 buyers and sellers and farms to retailers across Ontario.

The largest food terminal in Canada, fourth largest in North America, moving 2 billion pounds of fruit and veg every single year.

Now, this is where we start to get into what we're announcing today because our vision is that this terminal expanded,

this terminal and others like it will play increasingly important roles in building a stronger

and more resilient food system and a stronger, more resilient Canada.

because the ability to move food efficiently and affordably is not just an economic advantage, it's a strategic necessity.

The world changes rapidly.

The war in the Middle East and Ukraine transform the chains of supply chain in energy, security and food.

In parallel, the world commerce is in full of mutations.

The technological changes, the climate change is serious, and the public funds are missing.

As Canadians, we've taken a few lessons over the course of the last 18 months.

And the first, as Canadians, is that we have to take care of each other.

That's why this government has cut taxes on incomes, on housing, on investment.

It's why we've made the national school food program permanent.

It's why we've launched the new Canada Groceries and Essentials benefit.

It's benefiting more than 12 million Canadians who received their first checks last week.

And it's why we're managing the nation's finances so that we can reinforce vital social programs – health care,

child care, dental care, pharma care.

But the other thing we've taken from the events of the last year and a half is that

we can give ourselves far more than others could ever take away.

And that's why we're building a stronger, a more resilient and a more independent Canadian economy.

for the Canadian materials to rebuild the Canadian Forces and to reduce our dependence regarding foreign foreign producers.

And thanks to the Bureau of Grand Projet and our strategy for electrification,

we reinforce our capacity to produce clean electricity,

abordable and reliable to be less vulnerable to the instability of the world market.

So all of those things, ways of building our strength at home.

But the core is to move from reliance to resilience,

because a country that can't feed itself or fuel itself or defend itself isn't truly sovereign.

It's vulnerable to global shocks.

It's vulnerable to supply chain disruptions.

It's vulnerable to tariffs.

So to protect our sovereignty and truly take control of our future, we have to take control of our food system.

We start from a position of strength.

One in nine Canadians wake up every day and go to work in this country because of our strong agri-food sector.

One in nine.

We're one of the world's largest exporters of agri-food products.

Our farmers, our ranchers, our producers are selling more than $100 billion every year abroad.

We're the largest producer of canola in the world.

We account for nearly a quarter of global supply.

As a testament to our remarkable farmers across the country, including in the prairies, Alberta,

Saskatchewan, Manitoba, farmers are already benefiting from our landmark trade agreement with China, which has lowered tariffs on Canadian canola earlier this year,

right in time for planting season.

We're one of the world's top wheat exporters, accounting for roughly 40 percent as well global lentil exporters.

We're big impulses.

Point is, we are an agricultural superpower,

yet for most Canadians it doesn't feel like that at the checkout counter.

Grocery prices are up nearly 35% since 2019.

And today the average Canadian family spends about $10,000 a year on groceries or $800 a month.

Now, one of the things we did is to look at the structural reasons for that.

There are multiple reasons.

Well, one of them is that while Canadian farmers, ranchers, and producers are producing enormous amounts of food,

we're relying on other countries to process a lot of it.

At the same time, we all know our growing seasons are too short to keep up with year-round demand.

And we're still reliant on other countries for essential foods.

Nearly 90 percent of our fresh fruit and nuts are imported, more than 70 percent of our vegetables.

And that reliance on foreign markets means that every global shock,

foreign conflict, drought, tariffs, shows up directly at grocery stores across this country.

And 75 percent, three-quarters of those grocery stores are the same five large retailers.

Those retailers dominate the supply chains and they leave independent grocers with fewer options and higher costs.

And too often those independent grocers must buy through their larger competitors at marked up prices.

And these costs are ultimately passed on to Canadian consumers.

That's why when you go to the corner store, you often are paying a higher price.

It also means that our farmers working hard coming here, unless they come here actually at 2 in the morning,

but our farmers don't have enough wholesale buyers competing for their products.

And the result of all of this is despite our vast agricultural strengths, we continue to face some of the higher grocery costs than we should.

and providing products of higher quality at lower prices.

And a strategy that will help us to cultivate, to transform and to sell food here,

at home, and to reduce our dependence on other countries.

So today we're pleased, very pleased, to announce that Canada is launching our first national food security strategy.

It's more than $3 billion in this strategy of investment to tackle the challenges in our food system through targeted measures

and investments to help create more affordable, sustainable and resilient food supply chain in Canada.

In other words, all the way across the supply chain.

Four key objectives, four pillars in this strategy.

And the first is to increase grocery store competition, create more choice for Canadians.

Second, process more food in Canada.

Third, grow more fruits and vegetables all year round in Canada.

And finally, lower prices by removing expensive regulatory barriers so farmers

and producers can put more Canadian food on our shelves more easily.

Within four years, our strategy targets increasing the number of independent grocers buying from food terminals

or hubs such as this by 15%.

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15%.

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and to boost local food sales from small and mid-sized producers by 25%.

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So we're setting ourselves specific targets, and we're putting the investment behind to achieve it.

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With our strategy, the government will first create more choice and competition here in Canada.

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will provide $1 billion over 10 years to establish a new 10-year food link fund.

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Starting right here at the Ontario food terminal,

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this fund will expand existing food terminals and start construction on two new ones by the end of 2028.

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And may I just, I should take a moment, Minister Jones, Trevor Jones of Ontario and the partnership with Ontario in aspects of this will be essential.

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And thank you for your leadership on that and that of Premier Ford.

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We will also work to create 40 new commercial food hubs across the country, right across Canada, bringing food closer to market,

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lowering distribution costs, and helping Canadians save at the checkout with high-quality Canadian food.

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

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We're going to give the Competition Bureau more resources to identify, prevent, and combat unfair business practices.

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For consumers, we're going to crack down on surveillance pricing.

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We're amending privacy legislation to protect consumer data, your data, so companies can no longer use it to charge you higher prices.

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The second big thing is boosting domestic food production right across the country,

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because for decades we've been paying other countries to convert what we already have into what we need.

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I'll use Thailand as an example, great place to go and visit.

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We love Thailand.

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70 percent of what we ship there, our wheat, our soybeans, our peas, is processed in Thailand and and then re-exported in global markets,

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sometimes back to ourselves.

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

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So to help Canadian businesses grow, produce, and process more food in Canada,

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we're launching another $1 billion fund through Farm Credit Canada.

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We'll also establish a $150 million food security fund to support small

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and medium-sized businesses in upgrading the critical equipment so that they can make more,

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store more, and bring more Canadian food to market.

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We'll establish and create a $100 million collaborative food innovation fund to help producers expand processing

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so more of each crop is used here.

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Because we have the talent and the resources and now we're going to build the capacity.

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The third pillar is to grow more produce all year round.

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That's going to cost some money for the capital investment.

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

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And this includes a $100 million investment to help northern

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and rural communities produce more food locally via small-scale indoor farms

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and basically reducing their dependence on shipments from thousands of kilometers away.

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

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Because right now, and this is a highly innovative sector, right now farmers and producers often wait years for approvals for new pesticides,

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for fertilizers, seeds and feed that they need to grow and produce food efficiently.

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

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

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

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With our approach, we will clear Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Pesticide Approvals backlogs and their big backlogs.

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We aim to clear those by the end of this year, making decisions faster and more predictable.

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So, this strategy is to transform our food system through the structural changes of great vigor,

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supported by massive investments, and some of the most important results will be concrètement.

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That's why we give today a push to Canadians and Canadians and offer a good way to the future.

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We have temporarily suspended the federal tax on the carbon to

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make it to make it to 10 cents to the price of work.

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We have already reduced the income for 22 million Canadians of the average class.

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And thanks to the Canadian new allocation for the capacity the necessary needs,

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12 million Canadians and Canadians received their first versement last week,

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so up to $533 for a family of four people.

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So let me conclude.

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The country's sovereignty depends on its ability to feed, to fuel, and to defend itself.

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Right now, we're not fully in control of our food system.

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It's an over-reliance that's left us vulnerable to global shocks, to conflicts, droughts, tariffs.

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This strategy is about changing that.

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It's about putting Canadians back in control of what we grow, what we buy, what we put on our table.

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In doing so, we're creating much more opportunity for farmers,

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much more competition for your hard-earned dollar by grocers, much more choice for Canadian families.

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We're going to grow more at home, process more at home, and feed more Canadians with Canadian food.

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Building a Canada that's not just strong, but good.

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Not just prosperous, but fair and affordable.

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that doesn't just work for some most of the time, but works for all Canadians all of the time.

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Our national food strategy will help create a strong, stable food system in Canada, from the farm to the grocery store to your dinner table.

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With that, Minister and I thank you.

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Thanks for your attention.

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Merci, and I look forward to your questions.

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Shadowing Practice: Prime Minister Carney launches Canada’s National Food Security Strategy - Learn English Speaking with Video

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