For David Hale, the tipping point was Red Rose tea.
A grocery shopper in the Moncton area, Hale says he watched over the past year as a box of 216 tea bags at Atlantic Superstore crept up from $9.99 to $13.99. A couple months ago, he walked into the store and says he discovered a new price: $23.99.
“I said there’s something going on here,” Hale said in an interview.
After speaking with a store manager and not getting a satisfying answer about what was behind the high price, Hale said he left without buying the tea.
A box of Red Rose tea was the tipping point for Moncton shopper David Hale. (Raechel Huizinga/CBC)
His son encouraged him to start shopping elsewhere, and Hale has only been back to Atlantic Superstore for dog food — when it’s on sale.
He stocked up on that at the end of April, ready to join other Canadians in boycotting all Loblaw Companies, which includes Atlantic Superstore, for the entire month of May (a box of 216 Red Rose tea bags was priced at $13.99 on May 7, when CBC visited the Atlantic Superstore in Moncton).
Other complaints about prices at the grocery giant that have circulated online include a $37 package of chicken breasts, $9 butter and $30 for feta cheese.
The prices led to the creation of a Reddit community called “Loblaws is out of control,” and the boycott was born.
Buying local
Forsaking corporate grocery stores can leave consumers — especially in a rural province like New Brunswick — with few alternatives. Buying from smaller grocers or farmers’ markets are a couple of options, but one farmer says New Brunswick doesn’t have enough producers to feed everyone.
Alyson Chisolm is the owner of Windy Hill Organic Farm in Kent County, about 55 kilometres north of Moncton.
She grows produce for farmers’ markets and her community-shared agriculture program, which takes up-front payments from consumers at the beginning of the growing season and in return provides baskets of fresh produce — spinach, tomatoes, zucchini, whatever is growing on the farm — every week until the season ends.
“We’re seeing fewer and fewer young people becoming farmers. We’re seeing a lot more young farmers or startup farms fail,” she said.
WATCH | If New Brunswickers want to abandon corporate grocery stores, a transformation is needed:
Here’s why N.B. farmers say the problem of food prices runs deeper than a boycott
5 hours ago
Duration 2:26
Some Canadians are boycotting Loblaw stores throughout May in response to high grocery prices, but New Brunswick farmers say the entire food system needs a transformation.
New Brunswick’s field-vegetable production reached 7,406 metric tonnes in 2023, according to the Department of Agriculture.
That’s an increase of 0.9 per cent from 2022. Self-sufficiency in vegetable production has also increased slightly, from 7.3 per cent in 2018 to 9.1 per cent in 2022. More recent data is not yet available.
Chisolm said there was renewed interest in buying local during the pandemic, when supply chain issues exposed how reliant New Brunswickers are on grocery stores — but as restrictions ended and the supply chain stabilized, that interest faded.
Alyson Chisolm uses this greenhouse to grow produce on her farm in Kent County. (Raechel Huizinga/CBC)
While her weekly food box subscribers have held steady, she said she believes that’s because other farms are struggling.
“I know quite a few farms who’ve either cut back their [community-shared agriculture] numbers quite drastically or have gotten out of farming,” she said. “It’s enabled me to maintain my numbers.”
Rebeka Frazer-Chiasson co-founded Ferme Terre Partagée, a co-op farm in Rogersville, with her partner Kevin Arseneau, now a Green MLA.
She said her weekly food-box numbers for this season are low so far, though not as bad as last year. This time four years ago, all of her spots were full — not only another sign of decreasing interest in buying local, she said, but also a sign that budgets are getting tighter.
Rebeka Frazer-Chiasson of Ferme Terre Partagée, says she shared this graph on social media to show how her farm’s food box prices have increased by 6.7 per cent over the past seven years, compared to an increase of more than 30 per cent at grocery stores in New Brunswick. (Ferme Terre Partagé / Instagram)
And not just for the average New Brunswickers. If farmers truly paid themselves for the work they do, Frazer-Chiasson said, the cost of their produce would be much higher.
There’s also the problem of housing. In Rogersville, she said the vacancy rate is low, another barrier for new farmers who have to invest thousands of dollars to get started.
“You can’t be making $15,000 a year and buying a house for $300,000.”
It’s ‘not enough’
Suzanne Fournier, executive director of the National Farmers Union of New Brunswick, said data from 2018 shows the net income for farmers was seven per cent of every dollar they made.
“That’s not enough to earn a living. That’s not enough to keep your farm going.”
Fournier acknowledged that the province recently announced there were record farm cash receipts in New Brunswick, but pointed out that most of that money goes to bills and debt.
“Farm debt is increasing at another exponential rate,” she said.
At the same time, so few companies control Canada’s grocery store system that farmers can’t raise their prices, Fournier said.
Chisolm made the same point, adding that’s why it’s so difficult to rebuild the food system.
“It’s not as simple as boycott Loblaw, buy from the farmers’ market,” she said.
“You have to build something. What we really need to do is transition. Transition away from supermarkets, transition towards local food and enable the farmers or the farmer wannabes to help meet that need.”
“Otherwise, it’s going to crash and burn, and we don’t want that to happen.”
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. says it has signed a deal that will result in the creation of its first eyewear collection.
The deal announced on Thursday by the Toronto-based luxury apparel company comes in the form of an exclusive, long-term global licensing agreement with Marchon Eyewear Inc.
The terms and value of the agreement were not disclosed, but Marchon produces eyewear for brands including Lacoste, Nike, Calvin Klein, Ferragamo, Longchamp and Zeiss.
Marchon plans to roll out both sunglasses and optical wear under the Canada Goose name next spring, starting in North America.
Canada Goose says the eyewear will be sold through optical retailers, department stores, Canada Goose shops and its website.
Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss told The Canadian Press in August that he envisioned his company eventually expanding into eyewear and luggage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Almost seven years since news broke of an alleged conspiracy to fix the price of packaged bread across Canada, the saga isn’t over: the Competition Bureau continues to investigate the companies that may have been involved, and two class-action lawsuits continue to work their way through the courts.
Here’s a timeline of key events in the bread price-fixing case.
Oct. 31, 2017: The Competition Bureau says it’s investigating allegations of bread price-fixing and that it was granted search warrants in the case. Several grocers confirm they are co-operating in the probe.
Dec. 19, 2017: Loblaw and George Weston say they participated in an “industry-wide price-fixing arrangement” to raise the price of packaged bread. The companies say they have been co-operating in the Competition Bureau’s investigation since March 2015, when they self-reported to the bureau upon discovering anti-competitive behaviour, and are receiving immunity from prosecution. They announce they are offering $25 gift cards to customers amid the ongoing investigation into alleged bread price-fixing.
Jan. 31, 2018: In court documents, the Competition Bureau says at least $1.50 was added to the price of a loaf of bread between about 2001 and 2016.
Dec. 20, 2019: A class-action lawsuit in a Quebec court against multiple grocers and food companies is certified against a number of companies allegedly involved in bread price-fixing, including Loblaw, George Weston, Metro, Sobeys, Walmart Canada, Canada Bread and Giant Tiger (which have all denied involvement, except for Loblaw and George Weston, which later settled with the plaintiffs).
Dec. 31, 2021: A class-action lawsuit in an Ontario court covering all Canadian residents except those in Quebec who bought packaged bread from a company named in the suit is certified against roughly the same group of companies.
June 21, 2023: Bakery giant Canada Bread Co. is fined $50 million after pleading guilty to four counts of price-fixing under the Competition Act as part of the Competition Bureau’s ongoing investigation.
Oct. 25 2023: Canada Bread files a statement of defence in the Ontario class action denying participating in the alleged conspiracy and saying any anti-competitive behaviour it participated in was at the direction and to the benefit of its then-majority owner Maple Leaf Foods, which is not a defendant in the case (neither is its current owner Grupo Bimbo). Maple Leaf calls Canada Bread’s accusations “baseless.”
Dec. 20, 2023: Metro files new documents in the Ontario class action accusing Loblaw and its parent company George Weston of conspiring to implicate it in the alleged scheme, denying involvement. Sobeys has made a similar claim. The two companies deny the allegations.
July 25, 2024: Loblaw and George Weston say they agreed to pay a combined $500 million to settle both the Ontario and Quebec class-action lawsuits. Loblaw’s share of the settlement includes a $96-million credit for the gift cards it gave out years earlier.
Sept. 12, 2024: Canada Bread files new documents in Ontario court as part of the class action, claiming Maple Leaf used it as a “shield” to avoid liability in the alleged scheme. Maple Leaf was a majority shareholder of Canada Bread until 2014, and the company claims it’s liable for any price-fixing activity. Maple Leaf refutes the claims.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:L, TSX:MFI, TSX:MRU, TSX:EMP.A, TSX:WN)
TORONTO – TD Bank Group, which is mired in a money laundering scandal in the U.S., says chief executive Bharat Masrani will retire next year.
Masrani, who will retire officially on April 10, 2025, says the bank’s, “anti-money laundering challenges,” took place on his watch and he takes full responsibility.
The bank named Raymond Chun, TD’s group head, Canadian personal banking, as his successor.
As part of a transition plan, Chun will become chief operating officer on Nov. 1 before taking over the top job when Masrani steps down at the bank’s annual meeting next year.
TD also announced that Riaz Ahmed, group head, wholesale banking and president and CEO of TD Securities, will retire at the end of January 2025.
TD has taken billions in charges related to ongoing U.S. investigations into the failure of its anti-money laundering program.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
