In 1988, there were 118 beef packing plants across Canada; the four largest companies in the industry were all Canadian-owned, and represented 35 per cent of the market. Today, 95 per cent of Canada’s beef is processed in three plants owned by two foreign-owned corporations, JBS, a Brazilian-headquartered multi-national, and Cargill, an American-based multi-national. And from seeds, to fertilizer, to farm equipment and machinery, to food processing and groceries, corporations concentrated and consolidated their control of our food system, carving up the economy into little empires: four corporations make 56 per cent of global seed sales, those very same corporations control 61 per cent of the global pesticide market, another four control 43 per cent of the market for farm machinery and equipment, and these same corporations have started buying up farm machinery companies across the prairies too. The global fertilizer market is relatively competitive, but not here: four corporations control 95 per cent of Canada's ammonia fertilizer market, and 100 per cent of urea. The elites have been squeezing farmers for decades, between high input costs and controlling food processing: four corporations process 60 per cent of Canada’s broiler chickens and 71 per cent of Canada’s pork, while another three process 80 per cent of Canada’s dairy. Another three handle 76 per cent of our grain, another two make 80 per cent of our bread, and another five make 80 per cent of the country’s grocery sales. These robber barons squeeze farmers at every stage of production for every dollar they can, from the seed and the fertilizer, to the machinery and processing, to the grocery store shelf, driving up costs for working families at every turn. And it isn't just your food: the elites have taken control of your bank, your phone plan, and your medicine. That’s why, over the last forty years, the cost of living has risen four times faster than wages have, all while stifling our productivity: from 1988 to 2022, Canada’s productivity rate fell from 88 per cent of the U.S. 's to just 71 per cent. These corporations have been allowed to accumulate so much control over our farms, our food, our lives, because of Canada’s competition laws: in 1985, as the Mulroney government was liberalizing trade with the United States, they believed Canadian industries needed to consolidate to compete with the U.S., and so they passed the Competition Act, which relaxed previous merger and acquisition standards. Although decades of reforms have improved the Competition Act, it nonetheless remains toothless against the scale of corporate concentration we face today. As of September 2025, there had already been 1,898 mergers and acquisitions in Canada, compared to 2,048 during the entirety of 2024; meanwhile, between 2024 and 2025, the Competition Bureau began 126 investigations and concluded 110; of them, 5 were challenged; in total, $42 million in penalties were levied, a rounding error for corporations raking in billions in profits. Mission—Matsqui’s New Democrats are fighting for real competition law reform, extending limitation periods, raising penalties for anti-competitive conduct, and most importantly, demanding mandatory divestiture thresholds: if a corporation controls a market share of 10 per cent or more in a market with a five-firm concentration ratio of 50 per cent or greater, it would be brought before the Competition Tribunal and required to divest its assets down to a 10 per cent market share. Divestitures would be ordered over two years for more regional concentrations, and five years for larger national ones, with temporary price caps pegged to inflation in all affected sectors to protect working families during the transition. To restore competition to our markets, we must ensure real consequences for the elites that rig markets against working people.