Government is to blame

Re. Poll: Should Ottawa force Canada's major grocery chains to stabilize food prices? (Castanet, Sept. 18)

(Castanet’s) recent poll asked whether the (federal) government should force grocery chains to stabilize food prices.

When I looked at the results, more than 75% of respondents said “Yes”. So how, exactly, do those respondents think the government can force companies to stabilize food prices when it is the government that is causing the problem?

First it created huge amounts of money out of thin air during the COVID-19 crisis, which made our currency worth less and was responsible for the initial surge in inflation. Then it increased fuel taxes several times over the past two years, which resulted in significant increases in costs of transportation for the food industry.

Just a month or two ago, the federal government again increased the carbon taxes on fuel, including charging GST on top of the new taxes.

It is my sincere hope the grocery chain CEOs, during their meetings with the government in Ottawa, told our prime minister that their plan to stabilize food prices is to get rid of him and his government.

Removal of all the recent new taxes on diesel fuel would go a long way to stabilizing and eventually lowering food costs, because transportation costs are a major component of food production and marketing.

Ted White, West Kelowna