NDP pushing feds to tackle rising grocery costs, 'greedflation'

The NDP are calling on the federal government to take steps to tackle "greedflation" and get to the bottom of the rising cost of groceries.

Thursday is an NDP opposition day, meaning the party gets to put forward a motion of its choosing for MPs to debate all day, and later vote on.

Generally these motions are efforts by opposition parties to push the government to take action on issues they view as pressing and may otherwise not be atop the agenda.

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Taking their first opportunity of the fall sitting to drive the agenda in the House of Commons, the New Democrats decided to put the spotlight ongrocery store giants making "massive profits in the last year," while the cost of groceries is on the rise, and workers' wages are not keeping up with inflation.

They are calling for the government to "recognize that corporate greed is a significant driver of inflation, and to take further action to support families during this cost-of-living crisis."

Specifically, the NDP want the Liberals to:

• Force CEOs and big corporations to "pay what they owe" by closing tax loopholes;
• Launch an "affordable and fair food strategy" to tackle "corporate greed";
• Ask the competition bureau to investigate grocery chain profits; and
• Support a House committee study calling grocery CEOs to testify about "high food prices and the role of 'greedflation.'"

The last point is in reference to NDP MP Alistair MacGregor's successful push, with all-party collaboration, to have the House Agriculture and Agri-Food Committee take on a study into the cost of groceries and inflation in the food supply chain.

As part of this work MPs are expected to call on industry stakeholders including grocery executives, economists, and farmers, with MacGregor vowing to "get to the bottom" of rising grocery costs.

“The three largest grocery chains in Canada have been raking in the money. If you look at Empire's net profits, up by 27.8 per cent in two years. Loblaws profits up by 17.2 per cent Just compared to last year, and Metro up by 7.8 per cent,” said MacGregor during debate in the House of Commons on Thursday's motion, while a colleague sitting nearby could be heard saying "shame."

"It's important that Canadians see that their members of Parliament are addressing their concerns. It's important that they see people that they have sent to this place debating this issue with sincerity, but also with policies that are going to address it," he said.

Getting in on the debate, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said that while there are elements of the motion he agrees with, he said it doesn’t account for fully addressing the problem, because as he sees it, the government is contributing to the rising cost of living.

"The NDP has this motion and they point out that corporations should pay what they owe, we agree with that. They say there should be increased penalties for price fixing, well, we agree with that, too," Poilievre said. "That's all very reasonable. Unfortunately, in some ways it doesn't go far enough, because they have a very limited view of greed. They think that it only exists in the private sector. They ignore in this motion government greed."

Liberal MPs also voiced support for seeing the House debate rising food costs, but Liberal MP and chair of the House Agriculture and Agri-Food Committee Kody Blois said during the debate that it appears the NDP motion "seems to almost have the conclusion before the investigation has even happened."

"And when he talks about high corporate profits and high food prices. I guess my question to the honourable member would be, is he asserting that there is absolute price gouging happening in this country? Or, does he think that there are plausible reasons as to why corporate profits could be higher and food prices are also higher?" Blois said, citing Canadians buying groceries more than going to restaurants during the pandemic, as an example.

Responding to the question from his colleague, MacGregor said that both can be true at the same time; food prices can be rising for a range of reasons, while large corporations are profiting off of cornering the market.

"These two things exist at the same time, and it's about time that parliamentarians took this issue seriously, started an inquiry, got answers and met the challenge with effective policy that is going to tackle inequality in this country."

Dalhousie University recently conducted a study that concluded that evidence of ‘greedflation’ in food retail in Canada is “weak at best.”

“Indeed, profits and margins are higher, but ever so slightly. Compared to some banks and other major economic players in our economy, the difference is relatively small. We also need to keep in mind that many Canadians will benefit from these decent financial outcomes as most pension plans in Canada will own shares in at least one of the big three,” wrote Sylvain Charlebois, senior director at the Agri-foods Analytics Labs at Dalhousie University.

Charlebois has said that based on research he was a part of, the data suggests that grocers may not be responsible. 

“That said, some prices in some food categories have behaved unreasonably in recent years, so it doesn’t mean ‘greedflation’ does not exist. Accepting that ‘greedflation’ exists and accusing companies of being abusive, though, is the easy part. Where it gets challenging is to set thresholds. How much is too much?” he said.