Friday, September 15, 2023

Trudeau threatens big grocery chains

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the big supermarket chains need to “stabilize prices by Thanksgiving” or he will take action.

He told a meeting for Liberals in London that he will be asking executives from Loblaws, Metro, Empire, Walmart and Costco to come up with a plan that will stabilize prices by Thanksgiving.


"If their plan doesn't provide real relief for the middle class and people working to join it, then we will take further action and we are not ruling anything out, including tax measures," Trudeau said to a room of applauding Liberal MPs.


Trudeau's remarks come as grocery prices continue to rise faster than the rate of inflation - with Stats Canada saying the cost of groceries was up 8.5 percent in July.


"It's not okay that our biggest grocery stores are making record profits while Canadians are struggling to put food on the table," Trudeau said.


He said nothing about a code of conduct that has been under discussion among federal, provincial and territorial agriculture ministers for more than a year.

He also said the Competition Act will be amended, first to enable the government to order the chains to provide more financial information and second to eliminate a provision in mergers that allows them to use gains in efficiencies as justification.