Senator Plett: Thank you, minister. I’m not sure whether that was a yes or a no. But with respect, as I said, I met with the Manitoba beef producers, and they are very concerned about this measure. Margins are already extremely tight. Your carbon tax has hammered their profitability, and this measure is just one more hurdle that they cannot afford.

We see this in a number of other areas in the agricultural sector, where the NDP-Liberal government is deliberately choosing policies that make life more unaffordable for farmers and producers.

Minister, why does your government seem to be doing everything in its power to undermine our beef industry?

We do care for farmers, and we are there to support them in different ways. In the last Fall Economic Statement and in the last budget, we are investing $1.5 billion to support our farmers in different ways, so I would say that our government has the backs of farmers. We recognize their extremely important contribution to our food security and our economy, and also their dedication to sustainable agriculture.

Our government is there, and I can explain during the coming hour the different ways and programming that we are putting in place to support them.

Hon. Paula Simons: Thank you very much, minister. With regard to beef slaughter in Canada, 84% is done by just two companies — JBS Foods Canada and Cargill, two large multinationals. Cattle producers and consumers, thus, are captive to a market without competition. According to Alberta government data, prices for slaughtered cattle and calves in Alberta stayed almost unchanged between January 2021 and January 2022, but over the same period retail beef inflation in Canada rose by 15.4%, while beef consumption went into sharp decline.

Minister, while I understand there are no easy answers to increasing slaughterhouse capacity, what steps are your government taking to protect Canadian consumers and beef producers from this degree of corporate concentration?