(Ottawa) The Minister of Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, announces more federal money in a program aimed at helping non-profit organizations to conduct research on commercial practices that can be harmful to consumers.
As part of the government’s plan “to fight against food inflation in Canada”, Minister Champagne announced Tuesday that he would triple the five-year envelope of the Contribution Program for non-profit consumer and volunteer organizations.
This program was created by the department’s Office of Consumer Affairs to help non-profit organizations (NPOs) document certain consumer practices. Funding for the program will increase from the current $1.69 million to $5 million per year, Minister Champagne announced Tuesday.
At the same time, the government is launching targeted calls to support new research projects on “practices harmful to consumers”, such as “reduflation” and “dequaliflation”. Ottawa will also create “new tools to help consumers make informed choices and reduce household costs.”
“Reduflation” is a commercial strategy which consists of reducing the quantity of product contained in a package, while the price remains the same, or even increases “to keep up with inflation”. “Desqualification”, for its part, consists of reducing the quality of products or ingredients, always without reducing the price.
A House of Commons committee adopted a New Democratic motion last Thursday to invite large grocers, and summon them if necessary, to testify about the measures taken to combat food inflation.
Minister Champagne argued that grocery giants have presented the government with plans to combat price rises, which he said include discounts, price freezes and price alignment policies.
But most CEOs have not revealed the details of these projects and Minister Champagne recently wanted them to be more transparent with consumers. The parliamentary committee is asking CEOs to submit their plans by November 2. He also invites Mr. Champagne and the Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, to appear to answer questions from MPs.