Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday he had invited the heads of Canada's five largest grocery chains, including Sobeys (EMPa.TO), Metro (MRU.TO) and Loblaw (L.TO), to Ottawa next week to discuss how they planned to control sky-rocketing food prices.
Trudeau's move comes when governments across the globe, especially in Europe, have expressed concern over soaring food prices as they seek to address a cost-of-living crisis that has intensified after the pandemic subsided and since the Russia-Ukraine war began.
However, after a similar move from the French government in June, analysts were skeptical about Trudeau's warning.
They argued it was a "political" tactic and might be ineffective in lowering lingering food inflation.
"Both PM Justin Trudeau and François-Philippe Champagne (Canada's industry minister) spoke tough about this topic and it is difficult to envision what teeth they have to hold grocers accountable," said Ben Jang, portfolio manager at Nikola Wealth.
Persons:
Justin Trudeau, Trudeau's, François, Philippe Champagne, Ben Jang, Michael Ashley Schulman, Allan Small, Granth Vanaik, Pooja Desai
Organizations:
Metro, Loblaw, Nikola Wealth, Running, Capital Advisors, iA, Wealth, Carrefour, Lipton, Nestle, PepsiCo, Unilever, Thomson
Locations:
Ottawa, Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Bengaluru