MPS asked to investigate rising cost of groceries

The federal government should investigate the soaring cost of groceries to get to the bottom of unexplained price hikes of goods like meat, and to address the “dangerous” number of Canadians who believe wrongdoing is to blame, according to food policy expert Sylvain Charlebois.

“Is there profiteering going on? There is a possibility, because we have concerns with some verticals in the grocery store,” he said. “Some of the increases we can explain. But a portion we just can't.”

NDP MP Alistair Macgregor is set to introduce a motion at the House of Commons agriculture committee meeting Wednesday afternoon, asking MPS to study the profits large grocery stories are making while grocery prices increase.

Charlebois, a professor at Dalhousie University, said “it's important to look into this for the Canadian public,” citing an August Angus Reid study in which 78 per cent of Canadians said they believe grocery stores are taking advantage of inflation to make bigger profits. He said this makes for a “dangerous threshold” of Canadians who believe there is abuse.

“A lot of people are losing faith here. And that's a problem. And I think Parliamentarians should actually look into this,” he said.

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh told reporters Tuesday corporate grocery profits and bonuses are “clear evidence” that “something beyond the understandable” is driving the price hikes.

Singh said if the prices were simply increasing to “match the increased costs, you wouldn't be seeing the bonuses and the record profits.” He added that while there are other areas where inflation is coming down, that's not happening with food prices.

“All these things paint a picture that clearly there's something going on,” he said. Singh pointed to the 2018 bread-price-fixing scandal as precedent.

But, Singh said, “it could just be as simple as corporate greed. It doesn't have to be any more nefarious, but that is deeply a problem.”

Charlebois said there have now been “thirteen straight months, when the food inflation rate exceeded the general inflation in Canada. People are spooked at the grocery store. They're wondering what's going on.”

He added that given the bread price-fixing scandal, “there's baggage there, which certainly would make some of the criticism deserved.”

Asked what profits the NDP is using as a basis for its claims, a spokesperson pointed to numbers from the most recent financial reports from Loblaw Companies, Empire Companies and Metro.

Loblaw has pointed to its drug retail division, which includes Shoppers Drug Mart, as the profit driver.

Charlebois said he conducted a study that looked into grocery chains' profits and didn't find any evidence of “greedflation or abuse or profiteering at all in the last five years.”