Grocery prices in Canada rose 8.5% in July, showing a slight easing of price growth but still running much hotter than overall inflation at 3.3%. In August, the consumer price index rose 4% from a year ago, the quickest pace since April. According to Statistics Canada, that is faster than the median estimate of 3.8%. On a monthly basis, the index rose 0.4%, double expectations.
Threatening punitive action, including tax measures, the federal government has issued a demand that the five major Canadian grocery chains -- Loblaw, Metro, Empire, Walmart, and Costco -- come up with a plan to stabilize prices.
As Canadians continue to struggle with inflation, the Liberal government is accusing the grocers of profiteering. But in a parliamentary committee studying food inflation earlier this year, executives denied the allegations.
Brian Rushfeldt, a conservative activist, says "government interference on every front" is what has spurred on inflation.
"Government interfering with what kind of crops can be grown, what kind of fertilizer can be used," he gives as examples. " The Conservatives are absolutely, 100% correct in pointing out the fact that the taxes that Trudeau has put on oil, gas, electricity, [and] everything that he can tax has driven up the cost of groceries. It's driven up the cost of living -- period."
Rushfeldt worries he and his fellow Canadians will witness "lineups" comparable to what he saw during a visit to Russia in 1993.
"People [were] lining up for potatoes, then they'd go and line up someplace for eggs, and then they'd go and line up, if there was meat, they might be in line early enough to get meat," he reports.
"Wouldn't that be wonderful to do that across Canada?" he jests. "Then the government could take over all the farms. Bill Gates is buying them up anyway, so Bill Gates and our Communist dictator could buy up all the farms and hire all of us at low wages."
In response to the prime minister's demand, the Retail Council of Canada said in a statement that grocer prices and profits have nothing to do with rising food prices, pointing instead to higher costs being passed on from food manufacturers and producers.
The group said that any discussions on food pricing need to also include processors, manufacturers, and other relevant businesses along the supply chain.
"We are facing a myriad of price increases from suppliers, but we don't point the fingers at the suppliers," Gary Sands, senior vice-president with the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, told the National Post. "All those other factors … are driving up costs."
