Editorial: Food and politics don’t mix

I admit that I snickered a little at the prime ministers’ ultimatum to Canadian grocers last month, demanding they find a way to stabilize grocery prices.

Faced with consumer backlash over the rising cost of food, it’s no surprise that politicians feel pressured to do something. But the prime minister’s demand shows us that politicians still don’t grasp how to handle inflationary costs within the food system.

It’s no coincidence that Justin Trudeau made his demand to grocers during a caucus retreat. The Liberals are lagging in the polls, and chastising big corporations that seem to make life difficult for Canadians may seem like a good strategy to win voter favour.

“Large grocery chains are making record profits. Those profits should not be made on the backs of people who are struggling to feed their families,” Trudeau said at a press conference following the retreat.

He said the federal government would ask Canada’s five largest grocery companies — Loblaw, Metro, Empire (Sobeys), Walmart and Costco — to come up with a plan by Thanksgiving. If they didn’t “provide real relief” for shoppers, “we will take further action and we are not ruling anything out, including tax measures.”

Leading the charge is Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, who said at the press conference that he also planned to confer with other segments of the food industry.

The grocery companies did come back with a plan of sorts on Oct. 5, several days before their Thanksgiving deadline, and it wasn’t overwhelming.

In fact, I don’t think it’s different from what they do already as the holiday season approaches, such as offer price freezes on key staples or offer multi-buy discounts. Champagne noted in a Canadian Press article Oct. 6 that he could already see grocer efforts via Thanksgiving savings in store flyers.

As a consumer, I don’t see this as relief. And I certainly didn’t see stellar savings at grocery retailers. What I did see were clever strategies to make it appear I was getting a deal, particularly with frozen turkeys.

Previously sold by the pound or kilogram, three stores I visited instead offered the birds by weight ‘categories’. For example, an eight to 10 pound bird had a flat price tag (such as $18 at my local Loblaws-brand No Frills) or a price range ($15-$18 at Walmart).

I bought mine at No Frills, and yes, I did dig through the freezer to find a bird as close to 10 pounds as I could. I’m not sure how many other consumers did the same or wondered why the per pound amount was missing.

That’s likely what grocers were hoping.

The price of a Thanksgiving turkey was also debated in the House of Commons following Champagne’s announcement of grocery companies’ initial plans.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre challenged Champagne’s enthusiasm for the changes.

“In the last days of the Conservative government, the price per pound of turkey was $1.49 and the flyers today show it’s $2.49,” he is quoted as saying in an exchange with Champagne in a CTV news article.

It’s ridiculous to expect the price of any food to remain stable over eight years, which was the last time we had a Conservative prime minister. A better comparison would be what the price of a turkey was last year, or three years ago (pre-pandemic), because food inflation has significantly increased only within the past year to 18 months.

Poilievre doubled down: “And I might add that the picture of the turkey during the Conservative years was a big plump beautiful bird, whereas right now it’s a skimpy, shrimpy little thing that looks like it’s been taxed to death,” he said.

It’s been nearly five months since the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Forestry presented its report, Grocery Affordability: Examining Rising Food Costs in Canada.

The committee heard testimony from 58 witnesses over nine meetings held between November 2022 and April 2023, including representatives from grocery companies and the primary production, processing and retail sectors.

The report contains 13 recommendations, from strengthening data collection on prices throughout the supply chain to addressing financial challenges faced by farmers and food processors.

Food is on a fast-track to becoming political fodder and it’s apparent that our political parties have little understanding of the food system or ideas on how to improve it.

Attacking retailers is an easy out.