Some leaders of Canada’s five major supermarket chains emerged from their meeting Monday with federal Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne calling it a “productive” meeting, while the government touted a “historic” day. » marked by “difficult” but “constructive” discussions.
The big bosses of Loblaws, Metro, Costco, Walmart Canada and Empire Company Limited, the parent company of Sobeys and IGA, went very close to parliament for this meeting which lasted more than an hour and a half.
Most of them did not speak to the journalists who were waiting for them at one of the entrances to the building.
Empire CEO Michael Medline nevertheless stopped briefly to describe the meeting as “productive” and to mention that everyone agrees that prices need to be stabilized.
“We are all looking for price stabilization. We are all looking for less inflation. It’s in everyone’s interest,” added Metro President and CEO Éric La Flèche.
However, he insisted that the rise in prices for consumers stems from costs that increase from the first link in the “supply chain”.
“We are the last link in this chain. Prices are rising from our suppliers, from farmers, from everyone. […] We are at the end of the chain and that is why retail prices have gone up,” said Mr. La Flèche.
The latter affirmed that Minister Champagne “understands very clearly” that other stakeholders, such as producers, must be included in the discussion. “There was a consensus around this,” he added.
On this subject, Mr. Champagne indicated that he will meet with manufacturers later this week.
During the first meeting of what he described as a “process” leading to the stabilization of food prices, the minister claimed to have obtained a commitment to collaboration from the assembled CEOs.
“I am happy to see the constructive tone that has been adopted by the various food chains and above all that[elles] have committed[e]“formally to support the Government of Canada in our efforts to stabilize prices,” he maintained.
Just before the start of Parliament on Monday, Justin Trudeau’s government announced that Ottawa was summoning the leaders of the main supermarket chains to explain how they intended to stabilize food prices.
The federal government is asking them to provide a plan by Thanksgiving and is threatening to intervene if what they plan is deemed insufficient.
“Canadians need to be able to buy their groceries without going into debt while big companies make record profits,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before taking part in question period.
Mr. Champagne said he “totally” expected the Thanksgiving deadline to be met. However, Ottawa’s threat to resort to tax measures has not yet been lifted, the minister said.
“Everything is on the table,” he maintained. Despite everything, he insisted on the commitment made by the big bosses of the food chains despite “difficult discussions, but [de] discussions that needed to take place.”
“The five are in competition. What we asked them to do was agree on a common goal, [c’est-à-dire] to work with the government to stabilize prices in Canada, mentioned Mr. Champagne. Now, the way Metro is going to do this or Loblaws or Sobeys, obviously it will be developed individually because we have to maintain competition. »
According to the minister, it was the first time in Canadian history that the five leaders met in Ottawa.
Two of them have already traveled to the federal capital last March to appear before a parliamentary committee, namely Mr. Medline and the president of Loblaws, Galen Weston. A third, Mr. La Flèche, testified by videoconference.
A summons shunned and criticized
The summons to the parliamentary committee resulted from an initiative by the New Democrats, and their leader, Jagmeet Singh, himself appeared at the CEO’s appearance to ask them questions.
During question period on Monday, Mr. Singh pointed out that other party leaders were absent during this committee testimony.
“None of them even bothered to introduce themselves,” he criticized them.
At a press briefing, he argued that this demonstrated that “other parties do not have the courage to confront the greed of big business”.
According to the New Democrats, the government’s approach is too timid and it should “force” the major chains to lower their prices.
“His plan is vague and does not force CEOs to act. Asking Galen Weston nicely to make less profits is like asking Pierre Poilievre to worry about climate change,” Mr. Singh commented last Thursday.
On Monday, he tabled his own roadmap, in the form of a private member’s bill, to tackle high food prices.
The purpose of the legislative piece is to “increase[r] penalties for price fixing, aid[er] small grocery stores by protecting them against the anti-competitive tactics of large chains [et] given[er] the competition bureau more powers to crack down on abuses such as price gouging.”
To do this, the bill aims, among other things, to amend the Competition Act. Mr. Champagne noted that the Liberals already announced last week that they intended to make several changes to this legislation, such as one that would remove a mechanism allowing companies to defend anti-competitive mergers.
“We are in the process of bringing about the most complete reform of competition law,” argued the minister.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, for his part, ridiculed the meeting held by the Liberals with the CEOs, asking in the House if, “because of [celle-ci] ”, the price of “lettuce will come down compared to its 94% increase”.
Mr. Champagne retorted that Canadians knew full well that it was not wise to take advice from the leader of the official opposition since he suggested that cryptocurrencies could help Canadians “withdraw from inflation” .
The Bloc Québécois, for its part, believes that Monday’s meeting “should have taken place well before”. Otherwise, their parliamentary leader, Alain Therrien, simply mentioned that the Bloc members will be “very attentive” to what happens next.