The federal Minister of Innovation, François-Philippe Champagne, is juggling the idea of resorting to a common G7 front in order to “stabilize” the prices of food sold in supermarkets.
“If we need an initiative from the G7 to do it together to have concrete results, that’s what we’re going to do,” he said Tuesday in a press scrum, the day after his meeting with the major bosses of the five largest grocery chains in Canada.
On Monday, the minister seemed more vague about possible international collaboration on this issue.
“Perhaps we will eventually have to have international collaboration to […] put pressure on these food giants who push higher prices,” he argued.
He mentioned Tuesday that he had already started discussions with his counterparts in France and England.
Mr. Champagne also plans to take advantage of the visit of a Japanese delegation later this week to address the issue. The meeting planned in Ottawa will, however, mainly focus on the electric battery sector.
But before coming to form a common G7 front, the Government of Canada first hopes that the five major grocery chains whose leaders it met will provide a concrete individual “stabilization” plan by ‘Action of grace.
The CEOs who came to Ottawa on Monday made a “formal” commitment, according to Mr. Champagne, to support Ottawa in its “efforts”.
However, the federal government still maintains its threat to intervene – particularly on the fiscal level – if it judges the CEOs’ plans to be insufficient.
Upcoming meeting with manufacturers
The Retail Council of Canada criticized Justin Trudeau’s government for having initially summoned only grocers without including “processors, producers […] as well as other relevant companies in the supply chain.
Since then, Mr. Champagne has promised major chains like Metro and Costco to also soon convene manufacturers like Nestlé and PepsiCo.
“And, what’s more, what I told them was that I was going to do it not only with the Canadian CEOs, but […] If that doesn’t work, we’re going to go to the boards of directors of these companies abroad,” added the minister.
Last Thursday, the Trudeau government also signaled that it intended to modify the Competition Act by notably removing a mechanism that allows companies to defend anti-competitive mergers.