Premiers draw a bead on price gougers
Ontario’s Ford shames company by name, Alberta investigating inflated prices
The gougers, scammers and profiteers are already among us. Governments must act before they spread like another new virus we might call PONDSCUM-19.
Premier Jason Kenney has talked tough about offenders. “There must be a special place in hell” for people who use a pandemic to cheat the vulnerable, he said.
Service Alberta has so far received 18 complaints of inflated prices. They’re being investigated, says Christine Myatt, Kenney’s deputy communications director.
She notes that Alberta’s Consumer Protection Act prohibits price gouging. “This has been the law in Alberta for years.”
Service Alberta’s complaint site has also received reports of “scams to donate to COVID-19 victims, charities or capitalize on alleged cures or treatments.”
Ontario and B.C. are acting even more aggressively, possibly because their COVID-19 crises are more advanced and so is the greed.
On Thursday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford landed like a maddened Sumo wrestler on an outfit called Pusateri’s Fine Foods.
He humiliated the boutique grocery chain, which has seven locations in Toronto, for selling Lysol wipes at $29.99 per tube and displaying this prominently in a storefront.
Those wipes are listed for $11.49 on Canadian Tire’s website.
They’re out of stock, which is exactly why people who have a supply are tempted to jack up the price.
Ford showed no mercy. “Nothing gets me more furious than someone taking advantage and price gouging the public that are in desperate need of these items,” he told reporters.
Freely naming and shaming Pusateri’s, he said the vast majority of companies are trying to help people out.
“And people have the nerve to actually jack up their prices to $30 a container for hand wipes? It’s beyond belief.”
Ford promised a quick provincial cabinet order with penalties for gouging.
It’s not the most egregious example of price-hiking, but
Ford made a vivid point and followed it with action. Nobody will want to be the next guest on the Ford show.
One could almost feel sorry for the company — until it issued a smarmy apology for “our mistake, our error, our oversight.”
The company said it’s under so much pressure that “critical elements were overlooked, including the incorrect pricing of this product.”
B.C., meanwhile, took crucial steps Thursday that are even more important, although the rollout was less dramatic.
The NDP will establish a supply chain unit that ensures delivery of goods in a timely manner, including to rural areas that could go short.
Retailers will have to report their supplies.
Much of this will be administered by a new government unit.
There will also be a ban on the resale of food, medical supplies, personal protective equipment, cleaning and other supplies.
That step is crucial.
The current climate is red meat to those who will try to buy up such things as hand sanitizers, probably from somebody along the supply chain who shouldn’t be selling them at all, and then handing them off to the highest bidder.
All these measures had already become B.C. law when they were announced by Premier John Horgan and Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth.
We won’t see Kenney’s government diving that deep into the private economy. The idea of a bureaucratic unit to control the supply chain, for instance, would cause fainting fits at a UCP convention.
These premiers differ in tactics but not goals.
They’re all determined to come down hard on the corrupt few who exploit crisis and misery.
And they’re wise to get an early start, because the longer the crisis persists, the worse the scamming and profiteering will get.