Like many of you, I enjoy my espresso coffee, and it would be very difficult for me to switch to tea, as some of you are doing.
But on a recent shopping trip to my favourite Italian grocery store (or what use to be my favourite), the price of my espresso was jacked up. Are you sitting down? The same pack increased by 60%. I honestly believed it to be a mistake. I contacted management and yes indeed, the supplier had increased their price. This resulted in the store itself is experiencing escalating costs, and all these spiraling expenses were simply passed on to the consumer.
We are told inflation is up to 5.7%. Who actually believes that? From gas to coffee, I have not seen any item on any shelf in any store up by a mere 5.7%. Accountants deal with and are mostly buried in numbers, so I would have to consider them experts in this area. When a forensic accountant told me the real inflation in Canada is at least 15%, that seemed much more realistic. We are told the principal reason for this outrageous escalation in the price of goods is due to the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. Yes, partly. It’s true that 25% of world wheat exports and 16% of corn exports come from the two countries combined. At this time, the exports of those commodities have virtually come to a halt. There is no denying that. But also keep in mind the pandemic caused manufacturers to cut back on production and reduce, if not eliminate inventory. There is a shortage of people who want to work five days a week. A major factor lies in Ottawa and Washington’s blow to the oil and gas industry. Drillers and transporters were cut off at the knees in Canada and the US by shutting down proposed pipelines, and any potential infrastructure that would have eliminated today’s unrealistic ballistic price at the pumps. This was a colossal error committed by the green left movement, and we are paying for it.
In addition, there has recently been Canadian government spending the likes of which no generation has ever seen. So many were seeing their bank accounts swell by government deposits far exceeding what they normally earned. So all these factors have led to historically high prices. And then the needless Russian war happened. It reduced raw materials to the world, and disrupted oil and gas distribution in Europe, where they are now paying four times more to heat with natural gas. It is an understatement to say that these have not been the best three years of our lives.
These unconscionable increases in price are not only about supply chain factors, higher wages, and other pandemic related issues. These soaring prices are also about price gouging and corporate greed. The stock market is where the real numbers surface. No corporation is suffering. In fact, many are brazenly boasting to shareholders that they are increasing prices, simply because they can.
In Canada, only some media and Conservatives inside and outside the House of Commons are shining a light on these outrageous prices, with leadership contestants Poilievre, Charest, and interim leader Candice Bergen leading the charge. In the US, some Congressmen have introduced the COVID–19 Price Gouging Prevention Act. It would give the Federal Trade Commission the ability to “seek civil penalties from companies that raise prices to unconscionably excessive levels”. Although it’s uncertain as to who is listening, or what results these actions could bring, but at least there are some courageous politicians making the effort to bring awareness to this unaffordable consumer dilemma.
NOTES
The Russians are not so far away. They are at our border in the Arctic. Canada had better prepare for incursion if not assimilation of our Arctic property. And they are just a few miles from Alaska, the US border. Russia has already planted its flag at the North Pole.
If Québec refuses to allow a Canadian gas pipeline through its territory, willing Manitoba, the center of Canada is perhaps a better alternative and quicker route to Europe and Indo-Asia. Churchill, Manitoba is the solution to export our energy. It sits on Hudson Bay and according to Conservative Peter McKay, has the “potential to be a gateway to world markets.” Unfortunately, it’s not going to happen with the NDP in power in Canada, and the likes of Enviro Minister Steven Guilbeault who “rather than unify and invest in Canada, spends time virtue signalling.”
How is it that while our allies are desperate, in fact rationing energy, the Canadian government is acting totally disconnected by using climate change to hobble if not destroy our number one industry, energy. It’s a gift to Russia, Venezuela and the rest of the oil producing dictatorial nations. And it also means that more countries will increase the burning of the real polluter, coal. Eliminating fossil fuels is not an automatic entry to the green world.
Leger survey says Canadians overwhelmingly want vandals to leave John A. McDonald statues alone. No one learns from history by cancelling it.
That’s what I’m Thinking
Robert Vairo
robert@newfirst.ca
