Freeland says government's aim is to 'stabilize' prices as meeting with grocery CEOs begins

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says today's meeting with the CEOs of five of Canada's biggest grocery chains is about stabilizing prices.

"Our government is going to do everything in our power to make sure prices stabilize," she said as she headed into the meeting Monday. "This meeting today is part of that effort."

Most of the CEOs attending the meeting declined to comment Monday morning. Michael Medline, president and CEO of Empire Company Ltd. and Sobeys Inc., said briefly he was looking forward to the meeting. 

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne sent out invitations Thursday afternoon to the heads of Loblaw, Sobeys, Metro, Costco and Walmart asking them to come to Ottawa in person to meet with himself and Freeland. 

The invitation came after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a number of affordability measures last week to address the rising cost of living and inflation.

Trudeau said the grocery chains have until Thanksgiving to share their plans to stabilize their prices. If they don't, he said, Ottawa will take action.

"And let me be very clear," Trudeau said Thursday. "If their plan doesn't provide real relief ... then we will take further action and we are not ruling anything out, including tax measures.

"It's not okay that our biggest grocery stores are making record profits while Canadians are struggling to put food on the table."

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh accused "greedy CEOs" of using "inflation as cover to drive up the cost of groceries."

Singh said he will introduce legislation later Monday that would make it harder for major grocery companies to drive up the cost of food.

"We're proposing a law that will strengthen competition in Canada, which will put an end to price-gouging, price-fixing and to mergers which continue to allow for monopolies when it comes to our groceries," he said.

The NDP leader said asking grocery companies to stabilize prices is "ridiculous" and insisted they have to be compelled to act with legislation.

A parliamentary committee investigating high food prices said in March that if Canada's Competition Bureau finds the grocery store giants are profiting excessively from food inflation, Ottawa should consider hitting the companies with a windfall tax on excess profits.

The Competition Bureau concluded in June that Canada's grocery business doesn't have enough competition and is dominated by three domestic giants. It called on the government to encourage new market entrants to bring down prices.