(OTTAWA) Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says CEOs of Canada’s largest grocery chains need to be transparent about recent food price hikes.
The leaders of Loblaw, Metro and Empire, which operate banners like Provigo, Super C or IGA, are due to testify late Wednesday afternoon before the Commons Agriculture and Agri-Food Standing Committee, as part of of his study on food price inflation.
This inflation has been particularly devastating for low-income Canadians.
Food prices in grocery stores rose 11.4% in January from a year ago. It’s also nearly double the headline inflation rate, which was 5.9% in January.
PHOTO NICK IWANYSHYN, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Federal Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland
At a press conference Wednesday afternoon in Mississauga, Ont., Minister Freeland said she was happy to see that the committee will hear from major grocers.
The Deputy Prime Minister said CEOs had to explain why prices had risen dramatically in their supermarkets.
CEOs “surely have a duty to all of us to be transparent about why these prices are so high,” Ms.me Freeland. And I hope they will tell us that the prices will start to come down. »
Other senior executives of these big grocers had already testified in the Commons. But New Democrats in particular lamented the absence of the CEOs themselves.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh flooded his social media with posts announcing his questioning of Galen Weston, the billionaire chairman and CEO of Loblaw. He told reporters on Wednesday that more than 2,000 people submitted questions to the NDP to ask the big grocers.
“We’re going to ask them tough questions: this is one of the most important answers we’ve received from the public,” he said.
Canadians tell us they are struggling. They have trouble shopping. At the same time, these grocery stores are not only posting normal profits, high profits: they are posting record profits. They have never done better. Their CEOs get huge bonuses.
Jagmeet Singh, leader of the NDP
Asked what the NDP would do differently to remedy the situation, Mr Singh explained that the government could strengthen competition laws and introduce an “excessive profits tax” targeting this sector, as the Kingdom has done. United and Spain.
Galen G. Weston (Loblaw) and Michael Medline, president and CEO of Empire (IGA, Sobeys), are scheduled to appear in person on Wednesday. Eric La Flèche, CEO of Metro, will appear by videoconference.