Just before noon on Tuesday morning, Rochdi’s Independent Grocer in Yellowknife welcomed the leader of Canada’s NDP party, Jagmeet Singh, to share some of his thoughts and ideas about the rising cost of groceries both in the North and across the country.
This was part of a tour that Singh is taking across the Territories to speak with northerners about what he wants to do to help lower costs.
“One of the things we know is when you go into a grocery store and your spending more than ever before and leaving with less than ever before, people feel ripped off, and they’re right to feel ripped off. It’s because these large, corporate grocery stores are ripping off Canadians.”
(Photo by Connor Pitre/True North FM)
To help express his point, Singh had previously gone through the store with local NDP candidate Kelvin Kotchilea, and made only three purchases. Each of the items they had bought were from President’s Choice, an in-house brand owned by Loblaws, which is the largest corporate grocery chain in the country. The three items, a bottle of olive oil, a bag of apples, and a bag of peaches, ended up coming to nearly fifty dollars.
Singh’s criticism was that Loblaw’s regularly reports record profits while the items they sell continuously become more expensive on consumers.
“Record profits at a time when people can barely afford their groceries. I call the CEOs of these corporations to committee and ask ‘how much profit is enough? You’re already making record profits, how much more do you want to make?’ and they have no answer. The rules have been written by liberals and conservatives to let these corporations rip you off.
“We know the North has already been struggling. It’s already hard to afford groceries in the North, and it’s even harder now when corporate grocery stores have free reign to rip off people.”
As an example, Singh sited Loblaw’s role in the bread price fixing scandal, where Loblaws worked with other grocery companies to manipulate the price of bread in a way that would earn them more profits. As a result, a settlement was paid at $500 million, which was only a drop in the bucket to the near $5 billion that the corporations made through the scheme.
Singh’s proposed solution to help prevent these kinds of price hiking schemes would be to set the fine at triple the amount of whatever money is made.
Singh and Kotchilea will be in Yellowknife until Thursday night. They’ll hear from people about food prices and housing prices at Singh’s Change the Rules townhall on Wednesday. Singh will also meet with community leaders and workers, including holding a roundtable discussion on improving and protecting health care.
