Champagne says grocers pledge to price freezes, price matching and discounts to stabilize food prices

Canada’s biggest grocery chains have committed to implementing a range of measures including price freezes, price matching and discounts to help stabilize food prices, the federal government announced on Thursday.

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said the five largest grocery chains will roll out the changes over the coming days and weeks.

Discounts will cover “key food products” considered the most important purchases for households, the government said, and measures will vary across grocery stores.

The announcement comes after Champagne and other federal ministers met last month with top executives at Loblaw, Metro, Empire, Walmart and Costco to discuss ways to bring down high food costs for Canadians.

The government gave companies a Thanksgiving deadline to present plans to tackle prices, and Thursday’s announcement represents the first commitments to come out of those talks.

Champagne noted that the process is ongoing, and said the government will take additional action if it decides that is required.

“This is day one of a process,” he told a news conference.

The government also said on Thursday that it is continuing work on a “grocery code of conduct” related to transparency in the industry, and on improvements across Canada’s food supply chain.

 

This article was reported by BNNBloomberg