Grocery chain executives like Loblaws CEO Galen Weston were summoned before the House of Commons agriculture committee on Wednesday to testify about the skyrocketing cost of food in Canada, which has been outpacing general inflation for 13 months straight.
It isn’t hard to see where that excess profit is going. Loblaws posted $529,000,000 in profits, some of the highest profits they’ve ever seen, in the final three months of 2022 alone, while many Canadians are struggling to survive.
When asked by NDP leader Jagmeet Singh “how much profit is enough profit?”, none of the grocery chain CEOs could give a real answer – which isn’t surprising. Their corporate greed knows no limits – we can’t count on grocers to self-regulate, even when it means millions of Canadians going hungry.
While grocery chains post record profits and executive bonuses continue to climb, a recent study by the University of Toronto shows that 5.8 million Canadians are experiencing food insecurity, including 1.4 million children.
Grocery chains won’t do the right thing unless they’re forced to. These are, after all, the same grocery chains who were caught fixing the price of bread, a universal staple food, back in 2018. It’s time to rein in corporate greed by taxing excess profits and outrageous executive bonuses, reversing Liberal and Conservative tax cuts for the ultra-rich, and ensuring that everyone pays their fair share.