Arbitrations have not finished getting more complex at the grocery store. Despite a healthy slowdown in food inflation last month after months of runaway activity, too many factors continue to weigh on Quebecers’ grocery baskets.
These would probably have done well without the new tightening of the key rate given Wednesday by the Bank of Canada, its tenth since March 2022. And this is not the only “reimbursement for groceries” distributed these days here by Ottawa, which will be enough to turn the tide. More than half of Canadians say they are $200 or less away from not being able to pay all their bills by the end of the month, according to a report by insolvency firm MNP released this week.
With nearly one in four Quebecers reporting food insecurity (24% in total, including 14% moderately or severely) last March, it’s a safe bet that these major economic gaps will result in even more nutritional compromises in the baskets, especially for households already weakened by the housing crisis and the high cost of living. From a public health point of view, there is an alarming shift here that needs to be addressed urgently.
It is also a blow for food banks, which respond to 2.2 million requests for food aid every month, up 20% since 2021, according to the most recent Hunger Count. The assistance totaling $ 34 million over five years granted Friday by the Legault government to food banks is timely. Accustomed to the greatest frugality, the environment had been flirting for several months with extreme destitution. Here he is able to structure himself and better organize himself to face this wave which includes people from increasingly diverse backgrounds. This is happy.
Of course, the grocery giants also have some soul-searching to do. No one is fooled. By claiming to entrust us with the reins of our savings with their increasingly sophisticated loyalty programs and their tailor-made discounts — courtesy of the data that we share with them with our eyes closed — they are only taking us a little deeper into the nets of their huge net. Buying more to save more is still buying. And it is even often too much to buy.
As detestable as it is, this appetite is not enough to attribute to the Loblaws, Sobeys and Metro of this world the sole responsibility for food inflation that they have knowingly inflated to their advantage. This discourse, very common in some circles, has recently been dismantled, at least in part, by the Competition Bureau. In his retail grocery market research report released at the end of June, he explains that a number of external factors (primarily the pandemic and the war in Ukraine) have indeed played a role in food prices. .
Acknowledging that, the Bureau notes that the very small number of food giants nevertheless keeps consumers in a state of relative dominance. This ends up being significantly felt in their pockets, even if “gross margins for food products have generally increased modestly”. He therefore concludes that “Canada needs solutions to control the price of the grocery basket” and that “increasing competition is a key part of the solution”. GOOD.
But supporting the arrival of new types of businesses in the grocery sector, especially online, and fostering the growth of independent grocers like the entry of international grocers into the Canadian market will take time, a long time. Above all, this will require more vigilance and surveillance, including from the Bureau itself, which will have to increase its investigations to fully play its role of watchdog.
Still, it is the entire food chain that should be better structured and valued if we want to find a more substantial basket of foodstuffs with our wallets. We still have a lot of crusts to eat in terms of food management – and especially food waste. The Legault government, which often repeats how much it cares about strengthening the food autonomy of Quebecers, would benefit from encouraging, or even outright forcing promising revolutions in these two areas.
It could also set about studying once and for all the impact that regulating the prices of a selection of basic products could have, as requested by the Table on Hunger and Social Development of Metropolitan Montreal. Ottawa could for its part lead a review on the elimination of the best before date, a way that is also being considered to promote a more intelligent use of the foodstuffs purchased and produced.
It will not be in vain, no matter how long these revolutions take to get under way. With climate change disrupting local and global production, the pressure on food will not be reduced tomorrow.