Cowichan-Malahat-Langford Member of Parliament, Alistair MacGregor took to the floor of the House of Commons today to ask about food prices during question period.
“It is Thanksgiving weekend and three out of five Canadians are being forced to take healthy food out of their carts because of the cost,” said MacGregor. “After two years of inaction, the Liberals’ out-of-touch solution is to leave it up to rich grocery CEOs. And we know Conservatives have no serious plans to confront corporate greed.”
“A year ago, the NDP successfully launched an investigation into food prices, and now we have a bill that will lower prices, not just stabilize them. So, will the Liberals do the right thing by supporting the NDP’s plan to lower food prices?” he asked.
The plan in which MacGregor is referencing is Bill C-352, which was introduced by leader Jagmeet Singh late last month. It amends the Competition Act to increase penalties for certain anti-competitive acts. It also changes aspects of the review of mergers, including how gains in efficiency and market concentration are taken into account.
The NDP referenced the recent merger of communications giants Rogers and Shaw as something that would have been prevented under such legislation.
“[The bill will] give the competition bureau more powers to crack down on abuses like price-gouging consumers, and stop mergers that decrease competition and hurt Canadians – like the recent Rogers and Shaw merger,” said the party in a press release in September.
In terms of the grocery industry, they hope that the bill would help keep prices down by preventing one organization from getting too large of a claim on the market. Something that has been a criticism of the sector due to Canada’s shrinking number of large grocery chains.
The Liberal Party’s parliamentary secretary for Innovation, Science, and Industry, and MP for Whitby, Ryan Turnbull responded saying he believes the government is already on the right track.
“We are doing the right thing, which is bringing CEOs of the largest grocery chains in the country to the table and getting them on board with an action plan to help fight on affordability for Canadians,” said Turnbull.
“They’ve committed to implementing action plans that include putting discounts on a basket of basic goods, bringing back price matching, because some of them didn’t have that before, and price freezes for Canadians. I don’t think that those measures are insignificant, I think they’re going to make a tangible difference for Canadians, but Canadians will be the judge.”
