Canada

I actually think the boycotts and sustained bad press about Loblaws might be helping more than this grocery code of conduct, whatever it’s supposedly doing.

But good news, everyone!

Amendments were made in December to the Competition Act that should help, eventually.

Here are some details you never asked for but I’ll post anyway.

I read a good blog post about it on Lemmy somewhere, but I can’t find it now unfortunately.

The gist is, from memory:

• the act was originally written to protect the Canadian economy from being overtaken by foreign competition (I.e. US especially).
• it would favour Canadian companies provided that it would benefit the country economically overall, regardless of the harms to Canadians in terms of the lack of competition (artificially high prices, lack of coverage, access, etc).
• these companies were protected from civil suits for those harms.
• the result was the best possible conditions for the consolidation of market share to the very few Canadian companies and too much cost or difficulty for foreign companies to bother competing with. Very often, these became family dynasties (The Westons, Rogerses, Sobeys’ owners - Irving?, etc).

But some of the changes in December basically alter those considerations about harms and these companies are legally exposed to civil suits if the harms are realized. This could help.

In some ways, I suppose we should be grateful for Loblaws’ exceptional greed of late because maybe nothing would change if we weren’t angry and focused enough on these problems.

I see this as a very long long overdue reaction to the telecom and grocery chain debacles. It’s hard to know for certain because these commercial dynasties are very tight with the political dynasties. It seems like they don’t really want anything to change. Just posturing for the cameras and then let things go back to “normal”.

Take the Internet, since its inception in Canada. One of the highest prices in the world. Same with wireless. Lately, the CRTC has helped kill almost all independent ISPs through long drawn out reviews and delay tactics on wholesale fiber rates, even after the lobbyist as Head was replaced with someone less duplicitous; someone who started with the mandate to focus policy on consumer benefits and protections as opposed to the industry. Still going on.

And of course, allowing Rogers to buy Shaw and Freedom Mobile. Selling off to videotron doesn’t help as much as a viable fourth player would have.

And now it feels like they’re sabre rattling about grocery regulations, encouraging Loblaws to drop prices until we forget about it but leave the door open for these problems to happen again. Then run around again trying to woo a foreign company/investment to come to Canada just like Wind Mobile, fail due to favouritism of Canadian incumbent companies and get bought and sold in 10-20 years. I don’t blame these foreign companies for avoiding Canada. Too risky.

The government is very conflicted right now it seems. But I’m hoping the changes to the act will turn this around for future industry decisions.