SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 233 - Oct/17/23

Mr. Ryan Williams (Bay of Quinte, CPC)

Oct/17/23 2:19:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after inflationary policies and eight years of the tax and speNDP-Liberal government, Canadians are paying more than they ever have for food, over 17% the last two years alone. The Prime Minister promised by Thanksgiving that he would freeze prices. Perhaps he meant by American Thanksgiving. However, it gets worse for Canadian families. For the 20 million Canadians who have a pet, pet food is up over 25%. Families struggling to put food on their tables are also struggling to put food in their pet bowls. Even pets know the Prime Minister is not worth the cost. The industry minister today said that he wished he knew what the plans were to lower grocery prices. The answer is simple: cut the excessive inflationary spending and axe the carbon tax. All Canadians know that with grocery prices up 17% and pet food prices up 25%, the government's handling of grocery prices is for the dogs.

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Context: House Hansard - 233 - Oct/17/23

Mr. Alistair MacGregor (Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, NDP)

Oct/17/23 2:56:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals' out-of-touch plan of nicely asking rich grocery CEOs to lower prices has not worked. Wishing and hoping that rich CEOs will do the right thing will not help families put food on the table. Grocery prices are still going up after 22 months. Canadians expect action, but the Liberals are out to lunch, and the Conservatives are all words and have no real plan. When is the minister going to get real about helping Canadian families, and support the NDP's plan to lower food prices?

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Context: House Hansard - 233 - Oct/17/23

Mr. Darrell Samson

Oct/17/23 4:53:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is a very important question. We have already started moving toward that, and I appreciate the support we are receiving from my colleague in the NDP. We brought in the top five grocery CEOs. We had some very productive conversations. We are starting to see prices drop, but they are not stabilized as much as they need to be, and we need to bring others in. We need to bring the manufacturers in; we need to bring the banks in; we need to bring the gas companies in. There are a lot of strategies to be had, and I am definitely going to continue to push for those types of approaches and strategies as we move forward.

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Context: House Hansard - 233 - Oct/17/23

Mr. Alistair MacGregor (Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, NDP)

Oct/17/23 5:06:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I enjoy serving with my colleague on the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food. I would agree with her that the Conservatives have concocted a false narrative about the real causes of inflation. They are willfully ignoring what all of the evidence can show anyone who takes the time to look. The unfortunate thing is that the Liberals have been asleep at the switch and have allowed that false narrative to take root. We have seen 22 months of rising food inflation and people are making difficult choices at the grocery store, yet the minister responsible for that file is only just now giving a stern talking to to grocery CEOs. Canadians are suffering and watching massive corporate profits, and what are those same corporations doing? They are laying off workers and using all of that profit to do stock buybacks and massive dividend payouts, which are often going to foreign investors and not benefiting people in Canada. We have all of this stuff happening. Does my hon. friend across the way believe her government should be doing more, and what should those steps be? We have an incredible amount of wealth being generated in Canada, but it is going to fewer and fewer people. That is what needs to change for people to have confidence in the economy again.

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