A group of associations representing independent grocers, suppliers and farmers is accusing Loblaw President Galen Weston of making an inaccurate statement to the House of Commons committee that studies food prices.
A letter sent Tuesday to MP Kody Blois, who chairs the agriculture committee, asks elected officials not to take part of Mr. Weston’s testimony into account when writing his final report.
At a committee meeting on December 7, the businessman told MPs that the food sector’s voluntary code of conduct, which is almost complete, would give too much power to big suppliers and could lead to price rises .
Mr Weston cited the Australian code of conduct as an example. He claimed the code contained a mechanism that caused cost increases in “basically 100% of the time.”
He argued that if this “had happened in Canada since the beginning of last year, it would have had the effect of adding the equivalent of $750 million in additional inflationary pressure for consumers.”
The Press had identified the inaccurate statement by the president of Loblaw on Saturday after speaking with food industry experts who had studied the Australian code in depth to develop the Canadian equivalent. “Either this is a made-up example, and I hope it is not, or he is talking about another Australian code that I am not aware of, but which would not be the code for the sector grocery products because there is only one,” declared Mathieu Frigon, president and CEO of the Dairy Processors Association of Canada, in Marie-Ève Fournier’s column.
For his part, Chris Leptos, the independent reviewer of the Australian code, says Mr Weston’s comments are “erroneous” because the Australian code does not provide a price negotiation mechanism.
Loblaw did not immediately respond to a request for comment.