By David Ljunggren and Steve Scherer
OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday said he had summoned five of the country’s biggest grocers, including Loblaws, Sobeys and Metro, to address cost-of-living concerns as voters turn away from his Liberal government.
After meeting with Liberal legislators in London, Ontario, Trudeau said the government asked the executives of the five largest grocery chains to come to Ottawa next week to explain how they will stabilize prices.
The five, represent 80% of the market. They will have until Oct. 9 to come up with a proposal that Ottawa can accept.
“If their plan doesn’t provide real relief … we will take further action and we are not ruling anything out, including tax measures,” said Trudeau.
“It does not make sense in a country like Canada that our largest grocery chains should be making record profits while Canadians are struggling to put food on the table.”
In 2022, Canada’s three largest grocers – Loblaws, Sobeys, and Metro – collectively reported more than C$100 billion ($74 billion) in sales and earned more than C$3.6 billion in profit. These companies also have faced pressure from Canada’s opposition New Democrats Party (NDP) for high grocery prices.
Loblaws, Metro, Sobey’s and Walmart Canada had no immediate comment.
In June, the country’s competition watchdog said more players in the grocery sector were crucial to combat soaring prices of essential goods.
Trudeau is also under pressure over a lack of affordable housing and as inflation continues to run well above the central bank’s 2% target. Ottawa will remove the federal 5% sales tax on the construction of new rental apartment buildings, he announced on Thursday.
“There are many developers and builders that are not moving forward with building new apartments because the costs are simply too high,” Trudeau said. “We will see the creation of many, many new apartment buildings.”
Opinion polls show the official opposition Conservatives, who accuse Trudeau of driving inflation through high government spending, would win power and end eight years of Liberal rule if an election were held now.
Trudeau reiterated that he had no plan to quit before the next election, which must be held by October 2025.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre on Thursday again blamed the housing crisis on Trudeau, and said he would introduce his own plan to get homes built to parliament when it reconvenes next week after the summer break.
($1 = 1.3506 Canadian dollars)
Source: Reuters/Reporting by David Ljunggren and Steve Scherer, additional reporting by Deborah Sophia in xxxx; editing by Grant McCool and Alistair Bell
