Why are food prices so high in Canada? MPs set to grill grocery CEOs

The top executives of Canada's three biggest grocers will take questions from MPs on Wednesday. Here's what to expect as they're grilled on food inflation.

The top executives at Canada’s big three grocers are set for questioning from members of Parliament on Wednesday afternoon as Canadian households continue to deal with food inflation.

The CEOs and presidents of Loblaw Cos. Ltd., Metro Inc. and Empire Co. Ltd. — which operates chains including Sobeys, Safeway and FreshCo — are set to testify before the House of Commons agriculture committee at 4:30 p.m. ET as part of its study on food inflation.

While headline inflation has shown signs of cooling in recent months, prices for food purchased from the grocery store was again up 11.4 per cent in January, according to Statistics Canada.

Grocers themselves have been increasingly under fire for the prices of the food on their shelves.

Among those MPs expected to attend is NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who has accused the grocery giants of price-gouging Canadians en route to higher profits in 2022.

An analysis from Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab published in November found all three top grocers beat their five-year averages for profit in the first half of 2022, with Loblaw beating its previous best results for the period by $180 million.

But the grocers have defended their profits, saying their margins haven’t changed.

Loblaw acknowledged in a recent social media campaign that it had become the “face of food inflation,” but stopped short of taking the blame for soaring prices. The chief financial officer for the country’s largest grocer said recently that the company is “not taking advantage” of food inflation to drive profit.