Justin Trudeau desperately wanted an investigation he initiated by the Competition Bureau to find evidence of price gouging by retail grocers last spring. He must have been terribly disappointed when the report found that not only were grocers not gouging citizens on food prices, but their profits were also modest in the words of the authors. Net profit margins for major grocery retailers sit around 3.6%..As the Liberal government has been collapsing in the polls, a desperate Trudeau has ignored the results of his own study and has taken to trying to blame grocers for food price increases yet again. He has embraced a threatening tone and has said he will impose taxes on grocers if they can’t tell him how they will lower prices within a few weeks..Even if grocers decided to be completely altruistic and become non-profit organizations, the price reduction for grocery products would be negligible at best. Shareholders would flee the grocers and stores would start closing while no new ones would be constructed. Food supplies would become unstable across the country. .Not only is Trudeau ignoring the results of his own data, but he is also playing loose with his language in an effort to villainize Canadian businesses. He angrily spits out the words “record profits” as if profits are an evil thing. Those record profits are due to a declining dollar and growing volume of sales. As long as the margins remain in the realm of 3.6%, nobody is grabbing a windfall of funds..What will Trudeau’s taxes look like when grocers fail in finding savings where they don’t exist?.How on earth would laying a tax upon the grocers reduce prices for anybody?.Liberal simpletons are flooding social media and cheering Trudeau’s war with the grocers. They want easy solutions to complex problems but it never works that way..The numbers look big because there are only five major grocery chains in Canada. They have to operate in high volumes in order to keep prices down. Logistics, buying power, training efficiency and management systems are all superior with large businesses. That’s why products usually cost more at farmer’s markets than in big box stores..If we did something as ridiculous as forcing big box stores to break up with some sort of anti-trust legislation, grocery prices would go through the roof and selection would go into the toilet. Nobody has suggested that yet but if Trudeau thinks he can somehow make food prices lower through adding taxes to them, I won’t put anything beyond him. After all, he is the man who said budgets balance themselves..The heads of Canada’s largest grocery chains dutifully attended a meeting with Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Francois-Philippe Champagne this week. They came from the meeting and made statements that they will seek ways to stabilize food prices..They took part in Trudeau’s theater, made their statements, and nothing will change. The grocers know that. Economists know that. Anybody with but the tiniest understanding of basic economics knows that. It’s questionable whether Trudeau knows that..If the prime minister imposes taxes on an industry claiming that a 3.6% profit margin is a windfall, he is going to send shockwaves through the Canadian economy. What business will be next? Most industries have higher margins than that. Dairy farmers for example enjoy profit margins over 20%..Canada’s inflationary situation is due to several factors. High, new taxes such as the carbon tax. Massive immigration numbers are adding to demand for every consumer product including housing. Ongoing supply chain issues still lingering due to the pandemic lockdowns and of course the massive debt the government has taken on..Until all those issues are somehow addressed, Canada is going to see continued inflation..Going after grocery retailers won’t do a damn thing. .Trudeau is desperately seeking distractions from his own dismal record as his public support evaporates. His bombshell about India allegedly assassinating a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is another example..Why did Trudeau wait until the day parliament opened before making those allegations?.Why hasn’t Trudeau expanded upon or provided some evidence with such a serious charge?.Let’s pray this isn’t a stunt..It's terrifying to think that a governing party as diplomatically and economically inept as the Trudeau Liberals may still have two years in power in front of it. The food crisis is just warming up..If you think food prices are high now, just wait until Justin Trudeau fixes them.
