Kingston MP says food affordability a priority after voting down NDP motion
Kingston and the Islands MP Mark Gerretsen voted against a proposed motion last week in the House of Commons that called for reforms to the Nutrition North Program and pressure to be placed on grocery chains to lower the price of essential food items.
Unfortunately, Gerretsen said, the third clause of the motion proposed by NDP MP Alistair Macgregor from Cowichan-Malahat-Langford made it impossible to support.
"It says, 'stop Liberal and Conservative corporate handouts to big grocers'," Gerretsen said.
"I don't agree with corporate handouts to anybody, but I certainly would challenge the fact that we've even been part of big corporate handouts to start with."
91.5% of MPs voted against the motion, but Gerretsen said the issue it was focused on is something that is a priority nonetheless.
He said the Grocery Code of Conduct that has been introduced and signed off on by the big grocery chains in Canada is a start for the government's push for better food affordability, pledging principles of transparency, timely dispute resolution, simplicity, and fair dealing across the value chain.
But the massive control of the market by just a few retailers, especially Loblaws, is an issue that Gerretsen said could need to be addressed further, even suggesting that Loblaws' market share of close to 50% is so big it may need to be forced to be split up.
"The grocery code of conduct is just the first step, if it doesn't appear to have produced the results that we want, then we'll take other steps," Gerretsen said.
"And one of those steps could be, quite frankly, breaking up Loblaws... especially when it comes to something that everybody needs, groceries, is it in the Canadians' best interest to have a grocery retailer that controls just shy of 50% of the grocery sales in Canada?"
Gerretsen also said the windfall tax that the NDP discusses is something he could see cross party support for, but there are still question remaining to be answered about ensuring those taxes aren't passed on to consumers.
He said last week's motion was something he could have supported with just the first two clauses, but it wasn't presented as a serious solution.
"If it had just been A and B, it would have been a lot easier for me to support," Gerretsen said.
"It speaks volumes when the only political party that votes in favor of it is the party."
Two Green Party MPs also voted in favour of the motion, otherwise only NDP members voted "yea".
Owen Fullerton, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, YGK News
