Grocers to offer discounts, price freezes on food, but Champagne offers little detail

IIndustry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says grocers will offer discounts, price freezes and price matching as an initial step to stabilize grocery prices.

But the minister did not provide any other details, including what products will be subject to promotions.

“Starting soon, Canadians will be able to see rollout of actions, such as discounts across a basket of food products, price freezes and price-matching campaigns, to name a few,” Champagne said, adding that he has already started to see some of these promotions being offered.

When pressed by reporters on how Canadians will know these promotions are any different than the ones regularly offered by grocers, Champagne said he does not want to disclose what each company has pledged to do.

“I’m saying those are examples of what we see in the plans, because I want the market to compete. I cannot say I received that from Loblaws, I received that from Metro, I received that from Costco, I received that from Walmart,” he said.

The Liberal government called on Canada’s major grocers last month to present a plan to stabilize prices by Thanksgiving, or face consequences.

Rising grocery prices have been a major pain point for Canadians and tend to disproportionately affect lower-income families who spend more of their income on food. Grocery prices in August rose 6.9 per cent from a year ago, while the overall inflation rate was four per cent.

Champagne announced other steps the government is taking, including tasking the Office of Consumer Affairs to establish a “grocery task force” that would monitor the implementation of the grocers’ plans.

A former Competition Bureau commissioner Melanie Aitken slammed the federal government for the approach it has taken with grocery prices.

Speaking at a conference hosted by the Competition Bureau on Thursday, Aitken said the federal government is choosing to ignore more glaring problems affecting grocery prices, such as the supply management system.

“Supply management is one of the ones that really gets my goat. Candidly, I think it’s a disgrace. Think of what this state-sponsored cartel has done to … food prices,” Aitken said.

“Instead, it’s better to have a perp walk of the grocery execs, bang their heads together and demand the plan by Friday before Thanksgiving dinner, no less.”

Canada’s supply management system controls the supply of dairy, poultry and eggs through price and import controls.