Alberta’s greenhouse industry says a new federal tax program could make expansion easier, but it might not help to lower food prices.
Ottawa announced Monday it will allow producers who buy or build new facilities to more quickly write off the cost of capital expansions on their taxes — a change from the current rules that limit write-offs to 10 per cent each year.
That could improve cash flow projections, perhaps tipping the scale in a project’s business case.
But tomato, cucumber and pepper producers stress that operating costs have a bigger impact on food prices than capital costs.
No. It will not help. Maybe in a competitive market it might, but Canada has been nursing an oligopoly for decades now, and oligopolies set their own prices based on what the public will tolerate.
Lowering prices requires either (a) breaking up the giants, or (b) offering a publicly-run alternative that somehow bypasses the vertically integrated supply chain.