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 ridings, 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 2:30 in the morning, 5:00 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, a terminal that connects 5,000 buyers and sellers from farms to retailers across Ontario, the largest food terminal in Canada, fourth largest in North America, moving two 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 is rapidly changing. Wars in the Middle East and Ukraine are reshaping energy, security, and food supply chains. At the same time, global trade is being rewired. Technological change is accelerating, climate change is worsening, and public dollars are becoming even more scarce.

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, and that's why this government has cut taxes on incomes, on housing, on investment. That's why we've made the National School Food Program permanent, it's why we've launched the new Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit that's benefitting more than 12 million Canadians who received their first cheques 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, pharmacare, 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 example, through our new AI Strategy – AI for All – we are building the data centres that will reinforce our digital sovereignty. Through our Defence Industrial Strategy, we are prioritising Canadian suppliers and materials to rebuild the Canadian Armed Forces and reduce our reliance on foreign suppliers. And through the Major Projects Office and our Electricity Strategy, we are strengthening Canada’s domestic energy supply so we are less vulnerable to volatile global markets.

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, and Manitoba, farmers are already benefitting 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%, as well of global lentil exporters. We're big (inaudible).

The 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, more than $800 a month. Now, one of the things we did is to look at the structural reasons for that. There are multiple reasons. 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% of our fresh fruit and nuts are imported, more than 70% 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%, three quarters, of those grocery stores are the same five large retailers, and 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 two 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.

Canada needs a new strategy. A strategy that will give Canadians more choice. More control. A strategy that will strengthen Canada’s position. One that breaks open the market for independent retailers and spurs more grocery stores to compete for the business of Canadian families by offering better quality products at lower prices. A strategy that makes it easier to grow, process, and sell more food right here at home and reduce our reliance on other countries.

So, today, we're pleased, very pleased, to announce that Canada is launching our first National Food Security Strategy. There’s more than $3 billion in the strategy of investment to tackle the challenges in our food system through targeted measures and investments to help create a more affordable, sustainable, and resilient food supply chain in Canada, in other words, all the way across the supply chain. There are four key objectives for 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%, 15%.

(Applause)

And to boost local food sales from small and mid-sized producers by 25%. So, we're setting ourselves specific targets and we're putting the investment behind to achieve them. With our strategy, the government will first create more choice and competition here in Canada, will provide $1 billion over 10 years to establish a new 10-year food link fund. Starting right here at the Ontario Food Terminal, this fund will expand existing food terminals and start construction on two new ones by the end of 2028.

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, and thank you for your leadership on that, and that of Premier Ford. We will also work to create 40 new commercial food hubs across the country, right across Canada, bringing food closer to market.

(Applause)

Lowering distribution costs and helping Canadians save at the checkout with high-quality Canadian food, and we're going to make sure that there's competition in the sector. We're going to give the Competition Bureau more resources to identify, prevent, and combat unfair business practices. For consumers, we're going to crack down on surveillance pricing. We're amending privacy legislation to protect consumer data, your data, so companies can no longer use it to charge you higher prices.

The second big thing is boosting domestic food production right across the country, because for decades, we've been paying other countries to convert what we already have into what we need. I'll use Thailand as an example, great place to go and visit. We love Thailand. 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. In effect, we're spending hundreds of millions of dollars to send our food elsewhere for processing that could be done at home. So, to help Canadian businesses grow, produce, and process more food in Canada, we're launching another $1 billion fund through Farm Credit Canada. 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. We’ll establish and create a $100 million collaborative food innovation fund to help producers expand processing so more of each crop is used here, because we have the talent and the resources. And now, we're going to build the capacity.

The third pillar is to grow more produce all year round. That's going to cost some money for the capital investment, so we're investing $750 million in greenhouses and hydroponics to dramatically expand Canada's capacity to produce fresh fruit and vegetables year-round, and 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 kilometres away.

And finally, we'll look to lower costs by cutting red tape across the agricultural supply chain, 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. So, to build the food system that Canadians deserve, we need to get out of our own way. We'll modernize key regulations so that food security and affordability are considered alongside of safety. We’ll speed up approvals for seeds, feeds, fertilizers, veterinary products, and reduce backlogs that slow down the system. With our approach, we will clear Canadian Food Inspection Agency and pesticide approvals’ backlogs, and they’re big backlogs, and we aim to clear those by the end of this year, making decisions faster and more predictable.

Ultimately, this strategy aims to transform our food systems with big structural changes backed by massive investments. And some of the biggest payoffs will take time. So we’re giving Canadians a boost today and a bridge to tomorrow. We temporarily suspended the federal fuel excise tax to save you up to 10 cents a litre until Labour Day, we cut taxes for 22 million middle-class Canadians, and with the new Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit, 12 million Canadians got their first cheques last week – that’s up to $533 for a family of four.

So, let me conclude. The country's sovereignty depends on its ability to feed, to fuel, and to defend itself. Right now, we're not fully in control of our food system. It's an overreliance that's left us vulnerable to global shocks, to conflicts, droughts, tariffs. This strategy is about changing that. It's about putting Canadians back in control of what we grow, what we buy, what we put on our table. And doing so, we're creating much more opportunity for farmers, much more competition for your hard-earned dollar by grocers, much more choice for Canadian families. We're going to grow more at home, process more at home, and feed more Canadians with Canadian food, building a Canada that's not just strong but good, not just prosperous but fair and affordable, a Canada that doesn't just work for some most of the time but works for all Canadians all of the time. 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. With that, the Minister and I thank you. Thanks for your attention, thank you, and I look forward to your questions.