Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government’s Competition Bureau told the House of Commons Thursday it was “relentlessly” committed to fighting mergers between grocery giants, Blacklock’s Reporter reported. The Competition Bureau, as stated on their website, is “a law enforcement agency that protects and promotes competition for the benefit of Canadian consumers and businesses.”The bureau’s claims were widely ridiculed by MPs on the Agriculture Committee because the organization approved 30 years’ worth of mergers. While testifying before the Agriculture Committee, Deputy Competition Commissioner Anthony Durocher said the Competition Bureau “promotes competition relentlessly.”“We try to be as persuasive as we can,” he said. “We think the evidence speaks for itself. Competition is good for consumers. It lowers prices.”MPs reacted in an uproar, disputing these claims. Bloc Québécois MP Yves Perron accused the bureau of making promises that were “more about appearances,” and pointed out that in prior decades there were 13 grocery chains in Canada and now there are only three.“It really grinds my gears,” said Perron. “I am looking at the history of mergers in the grocery industry. Even as a citizen, not even as an MP, I can’t help myself. What were you doing in the 1990s, the 2000s, 2007, 2017 and so on? There were transactions all through this period. We had 13 Canadian grocery chains and now there are three.”The three Perron referred to are Loblaw Companies, Metro Incorporated, and Empire Company Limited (operator of the Sobeys chain, which includes Safeway). This consolidation is a result of 34 years of mergers approved by the Competition Bureau. New Democrat MP Alistair MacGregor said these “three companies have over the last number of years swallowed up their competition.”Conservative MP Ryan Williams said all the massive consolidation of this industry from 1986 to 2024, resulting in “only three Canadian companies competing, is probably a good reason why prices are up.”In 1990, the Competition Bureau approved the sale of Ultra Mart and Miracle Food Mart stores to A&P, and in 2005 it approved the takeover of A&P’s Dominion and Food Basic stores by Metro, per Blacklock’s.Meanwhile, 1998 the bureau approved the sale of IGA stores to Sobeys and Loblaw Companies’ takeover of Québec chain Provigo and in 2013 it approved a Sobeys takeover of Western Canada Safeway stores. In 2014 it approved the takeover of 2,738 Shoppers Drug Mart stores by Loblaw Companies and in 2018 it approved the takeover of Ontario chain Farm Boy, again by Sobeys.A June 27 Grocery Competition report from the Competition Bureau acknowledged its own failure to block mergers. “Critics would note the Bureau’s focus on local grocery competition has allowed for a slow reduction in the number of grocers across Canada as the industry has consolidated,” said the report “There is some truth to that.”
