Senator Carignan: Well, that’s not exactly what the minister pledged to do. He said he was going to lower prices. Clearly, Minister Champagne has no idea what he’s doing. He even told us he was going to talk to his Japanese counterpart about Canadian grocery prices, as if Japan had anything to do with the prices people are paying at Metro or Provigo.

The minister is even talking about taxing grocers, as though adding a new tax would drive operating costs up and thereby lower prices. I get the feeling the minister is using smoke and mirrors to distract us. Mr. Leader, doesn’t it seem as though the government is taking Canadians for fools?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for the question. Unsurprisingly, I don’t have a precise answer to that. It’s not up to the government to set prices, unless you’re suggesting that the government take full control of the economy, which is not on the government’s radar, nor on that of your political party.

For the first time, the minister successfully convened major business leaders in order to underscore how important it is that they step up and come back with a serious program to address the challenge of rising grocery costs for Canadians. Furthermore, as I said last week, other players in the supply chain, in the context of food prices, will no doubt be called upon by this government to give Canadians a little relief when it comes to the rising cost of groceries.