An MP who represents much of Greater Victoria decried the Liberals for altering a bill proposed by the NDPs which was aimed at lowering prices throughout the country.
Alistair MacGregor, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford MP and food inflation critic for the NDP, says that this ‘gutting’ of the proposed bill came just one day before a report was released that shows rates of poverty are increasing rapidly.
“Across the country, we’re seeing more people needing to go to food banks, many of which have full-time jobs,” said MacGregor.
“Millions of Canadians cannot keep up with grocery costs. That should not be the case in a country as wealthy as Canada.”
He specifically called out the Bloc Quebecois and Liberals for the state of the proposed bill while also accusing the Conservatives of preferring to give “billions in handouts to the very same CEOs who are gouging people.”
The bill that MacGregor said was gutted by the other parties had many affordability measures cut from its outline, which was put together by NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.
Specifically, the Liberals and Bloc voted against measures to combat price fixing from major grocery chains and ban harmful mergers that reduce options and increase prices for consumers, according to the NDP.
In addition to this, the NDP say that the Liberals and Conservatives blocked a motion for grocery CEOs to lower prices or face a price cap earlier this June.
The motion that was shot down earlier this month also called for an end to corporate handouts to CEOs.
“Things have become very discouraging for Canadians – costs are up, and we’ve got a Liberal government that would rather protect CEO profits over people,” added MacGregor.
“And Pierre Poilievre and his Conservatives, who want to make it easier for rich grocery CEOs get (sic) richer at your expense. This is wrong. Canadians deserve better.”
Despite their actions in cutting out several affordability endeavours outlined in the NDPs bill, the Liberals and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claim publicly to want the rich to prosper less in order to help the affordability of all.
Pierre Poilievre has not shown an interest in bringing down grocery prices and instead decries the Liberals and NDPs for using taxpayer money on various social services he deems frivolous.
What do you think about implementing federal legislation to bring down prices? Let us know in the comments.
