foxtrot11 said "I have been going down to the states every two weeks lately (I live five minutes from the border in BC) I have a Nexus card, so I am in Bellingham Washington within a half hour.
I fill my tank, which with a 30% exchange rate still comes to a little over a dollar a litre (far cry from the $1.87 it is today in my city)
Milk at the Costco is about half price per gallon, but I watch my Fred Meyer flyers and quite often it goes on sale for even cheaper.
The meat is a fraction of the cost than in Canada (except for pork, which is on par with our per pound price). Still cannot buy eggs or raw chicken due to avian flu, so I buy those items and fresh veggies from a local farmers market. That's basically all I purchase in Canada any more. There is far more option because the big food companies have not locked out little guys from major stores with their pay-for-placement schemes.
We are being gouged - though I blame the carbon tax, which is added to every step of food production from seed to our plate. I do not solely blame Westen and other CEO's, I blame our poor government policies that have allowed for ridiculous monopolies, pay-for-placement schemes, supply management that means it is better to dump wheat or milk than to make use of it, and carbon taxes.
Brandon is even worse off due to its distance from Winnipeg, Regina and the US. You literally are locked in and grocers know they can charge more because you have no options. "
A few issues here!
There is a lot more affecting the price of groceries than solely carbon tax. Along with global shortage of various commodities, huge increases in input costs, equipment and maintenance costs we are still recovering from a vastly reduced crop in North America due to a severe drought in 2001. Some areas in the states and
Canada are still expecting to be dry this crop year as well.
The Ukraine war is still affecting markets and it is widely expected that the Ukrainian crop will suffer from far less seeded acres this year. Make no mistake Ukraine is a major grain and oilseed producer and a reduction in their crops along with shipping issues is sorely felt in the market place. However judging by large reductions in prices of most commodities in recent weeks I think that loss of production is largely priced into the current markets.
Pointing the finger at supply management is a common and serious mistake. Supply management is an excellent system which helps to stabilize the market and provides consistent reliable supply of supply managed commodities. When the milk marketing board was disbanded in the UK thousands of family dairy producers left the industry. The few larger dairies left are struggling with reduced and inconsistent pricing, when one of those dairy farms closes down the dairy companies find themselves scratching around to make up for the production loss. Note : my family do not and have never worked with supply managed commodities but I can see definite advantages which are overlooked by overzealous media stories, politicians and those generally looking to blame someone else.
It’s also important to remember that parts of European and US agriculture are heavily subsidized with direct payments which do nothing but distort the markets. Before coming to Canada I have farmed under production subsidies. It is a bad, discriminatory system that hurts family farms, hurts the agriculture industry and doesn’t really help out at the grocery counter.
These are just a few things among many affecting the price of food on your table.