NDP leader calls on government to adopt legislation to lower food prices
Posted October 1, 2023 5:01 pm.
Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is urging the government to adopt his party’s proposal to lower food prices across the country.
Singh introduced the Lowering Prices for Canadians Act to the House of Commons Sept. 18. It would give the Competition Bureau more power to issue penalties for certain “anti-competitive acts,” including price-fixing.
On Sunday, Singh and Taylor Bachrach, MP for Skeena—Bulkley Valley, held a news conference in Terrace, B.C., to discuss the legislation. They say it would close loopholes that let large grocery chains “price out the competition.”
Related links:
-
Are grocery stores greedy or a scapegoat? Group pushes back on feds’ ultimatum
-
Lack of competition is driving up grocery prices, federal watchdog says
“For almost two years, the Liberal government has stood by and watched while grocery CEOs made record profits off the backs of working families,” said Singh in a news release. “The reality is Justin Trudeau only started caring and called these meetings when he went down in the polls.
“If he is serious about this, he will include the NDP strong changes in his bill and finally stand dropped to greedy corporations and lower food prices.”
Singh introduced the bill just days after Trudeau called for grocery chains across the country to reduce costs for consumers or face consequences.
The Retail Council of Canada responded by saying it feels grocery stores are being made to be scapegoats, telling CityNews that more than 70 per cent of food costs at stores relates to the price from suppliers, and only two per cent is actual store profit.
“We need to have more players at the table and we can’t just point the finger at grocers,” Retail Council of Canada spokesperson Michelle Wasylyshen said at the time. “If they don’t have the vendors at the table, whose costs make up more than 70 per cent of the price to consumers, then we believe that we won’t have any meaningful outcomes.”
The NDP says Canada is currently seeing the highest level of food bank use in the country’s history.
According to Statistics Canada, increases in food prices have outpaced consumer inflation since late 2021. The reasons for this, the agency says, include energy prices, poor growing conditions, transportation costs, and rising margins at wholesalers and retailers.
With files from Cormac Mac Sweeney and Hana Mae Nassar.
