Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says he wishes Canadian grocers would be more forthcoming with the public about their plans to stabilize prices.
Earlier this month, Champagne announced that major Canadian grocers — Loblaw, Metro, Empire, Walmart and Costco — submitted initial plans to the federal government for how they will stabilize prices in the face of high inflation.
The Liberal government summoned the heads of the companies to meet in Ottawa last month, demanding they present such a plan by Thanksgiving or face potential tax measures.
At the announcement on Oct. 5, Champagne said those plans included discounts, price freezes and price-matching campaigns. He didn’t divulge many details at the time, saying he wanted the grocers to compete with one another.
But in an interview with The Canadian Press on Monday, Champagne said he wishes the grocers were willing to be more open.
“I wish they would be more forthcoming,” Champagne said. “They’ve been outlining to us the kind of things (they) intend to do, but I think they have perhaps historically been different in how they approach the market. They say, ‘We’re going to tell the market when we do it,’ but they are a bit concerned of telling in advance what they’re going to do.”
The issue of affordability — especially when it comes to housing and the cost of food — has been dominating political discourse for months, with both the Conservatives and NDP demanding the Liberal government do more to help Canadians struggling to pay the bills.
Grocery prices have risen in Canada at a faster rate than overall inflation, although they have also risen dramatically around the world. Many countries have seen food prices rise faster than in Canada.
Support for the Conservatives, who have focused heavily on that issue for months, has also been rising in the polls, at the expense of the Liberals.
The decision to pressure grocers to tackle rising prices was one of several affordability measures announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after a Liberal caucus retreat in September.
“During the summer, I think all of us went out and listened to Canadians about everywhere. And it became very clear when we met at our retreat with caucus that what we heard from Canadians was really around housing and around affordability,” Champagne said.
But the opposition has not welcomed the approach to the problem.
The Conservatives have been hammering the Liberals over the cost of groceries, blaming the prime minister for these price increases due to his government’s “deficit spending.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has said the Liberal government’s “plan to ask CEOs nicely to reduce prices is ridiculous.”
Still, it remains unclear what else Champagne could do, given groceries, unlike telecommunications, are not a federally regulated industry.
The lack of details from the grocers themselves does not add clarity.
The Canadian Press reached out to the grocers last week to request more details on their pledges to the federal government. Loblaw and Costco did not respond and Metro declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Walmart said the company promised to continue offering “everyday low prices,” which refers to its strategy of offering low prices on a regular basis, rather than on promotion only.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Sobeys, which is owned by Empire, responded on Friday to say the company isn’t disclosing its plan for competitive reasons.
“Our plans are competitively sensitive and we do not plan to discuss them before they are launched in our stores,” said Karen White-Boswell, Empire’s director of external communications.
That is in contrast to the way a similar situation has played out in Europe over the last year.
In the U.K., grocery giant Asda announced in June its plans to freeze prices on 500 products until the end of August. The French government reached a three-month agreement with supermarket chains earlier this year for them to cut prices on hundreds of staples and other foods.
Although Champagne has regularly pointed to these countries as examples to follow, he said Canadian grocers aren’t used to government intervention, and calling them into a meeting in Ottawa was already a big step for the federal government to take.
“We’re shaking the tree,” Champagne said. “This is not a regulated industry (like) telecom where they’re used to working with government to achieve outcomes.”
The Liberals have said getting grocers to stabilize prices is a way of taking immediate action to address people’s financial anxieties, but Champagne acknowledged during the interview that the solution to high grocery prices, in the long run, depends on competitive forces.
“(The) bottom line is that three companies in Canada, three large grocers, control more than 60 per cent of the market. And the best way to address that and stabilize prices over the mid- to long-term is to create more competition,” Champagne said.
The Liberals have also introduced legislation that would make several changes to the country’s competition law, including empowering the Competition Bureau to go after anticompetitive collaborations, such as real estate agreements that prohibit a competitor from opening shop nearby.
The federal government has long pledged a broader overhaul of the Competition Act, something many experts are hoping for as well.
Champagne said reform is going to happen, though he wouldn’t say when.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2023.
CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.
It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.
The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.
TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.
The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.
“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”
Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.
BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.
The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.
BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.
It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.
The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”
Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. trimmed its financial guidance as it reported its second-quarter revenue fell compared with a year ago.
The luxury clothing company says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 29 totalled $267.8 million, down from $281.1 million in the same quarter last year.
Net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $5.4 million or six cents per diluted share, up from $3.9 million or four cents per diluted share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, Canada Goose says it earned five cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 16 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
In its outlook, Canada Goose says it now expects total revenue for its full financial year to show a low-single-digit percentage decrease to low-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a low-single-digit increase.
It also says it now expects its adjusted net income per diluted share to show a mid-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a percentage increase in the mid-teens.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
