Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is asking leaders of grocery companies to create a strategy to keep food prices steady..If the major grocery chains do not stabilize the price of food, the Liberals may institute new taxes on their profits..“Let me be very clear,” said Trudeau..“If their plan doesn't provide real relief for the middle class and people working hard to join it, then we will take further action and we are not ruling anything out, including tax measures.”."Businesses should be competing for your business, not unfairly profiting from it,” said Trudeau..“So we're also taking the first steps to reform the Competition Act and make large businesses more accountable to Canadians.”.By Thanksgiving, the Trudeau government wants the five biggest grocery chains, which are Costco, Empire, Loblaws, Metro, and Walmart to have a plan to control prices in both the near term and long term as food inflation is outpacing all other inflation..READ MORE: Walmart not ‘profiteering’ from food inflation.This request is being made because grocery prices increased by 8.5% in July, although the rate of increase has slowed down. .For several months, the cost of food has been rising much faster than the cost of everything else, with overall inflation at 3.3% in July..The big grocery store chains have been accused of making excessive profits as food prices have increased. .Earlier this year, Loblaws, Metro and Empire denied these claims when their executives testified in front of a parliamentary committee investigating food price increases..With the goal of creating a fair and equitable environment within the grocery supply chain in Canada, an industry committee has been attempting to develop a grocery code of conduct.
