Canadian shoppers want their slice of $50M bread price-fixing fine

For anti-poverty activist Irene Breckon, it doesn't make sense: the federal government will pocket the entire $50-million fine Canada Bread must pay for price-fixing. 

"I'm glad they're being penalized, but I really don't want the government to have that money," said Breckon, of Elliot Lake, Ont. 

"That $50 million should be distributed to the people. Food prices are still high," she said, referring to the fact that over the past year, grocery prices have increased nine per cent. Bakery products have jumped 15 per cent.

Against the backdrop of high food inflation, major bread producer Canada Bread admitted last week it colluded to fix prices — a scheme that resulted in two wholesale hikes in 2007 and 2011.

Retailers factor in the wholesale price when determining how much to charge customers. 

The Competition Bureau said the guilty plea is a significant development in its more than seven-year investigation into an alleged industry-wide bread price-fixing scheme. 

"[It's a] very serious crime," said Commissioner of Competition Matthew Boswell in an interview on Friday. "Bread, as we all know, is a staple of the Canadian diet." 

Nevertheless, the $50-million fine will go into the federal government's general revenue pool. Although that money will be used for government services, many Canadians want to know why it's not going directly to them — the folks who bought the overpriced bread. 

"When a company does something wrong, they should give back to the people who they wronged," said shopper Chris Mrkonjic, outside a Toronto grocery store. 

But competition law expert Jennifer Quaid said the main purpose of criminal prosecutions is to punish bad actors, not dole out compensation.

"It's the exception rather than the rule," she said, adding that it would be difficult to identify the victims in a years-old bread price-fixing scheme. 

"People don't keep their receipts," said Quaid, a law professor at the University of Ottawa. "I really don't think that it would be practical in this case at all to imagine that we would use the criminal law system for this."

CBC News heard from several people, including Alex Vanderzand, of Pickering, Ont., who suggested the $50 million could easily be donated to food banks. Some of them are struggling to keep up with rising demand fuelled by high food inflation.

 "This money could help them stock their shelves and get it back out to people who really need it," said Vanderzand.