The fall political contest in Ottawa will be launched under the theme of “purchasing power,” as the opposition Liberals respond with a promise to put a roof over your head and food on your plate for less money.
“Canadians need to be able to buy their groceries without going into debt,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said shortly before storming into the House of Commons on Monday
The Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, had just completed a meeting with representatives of five major food brands. They had been publicly invited to Ottawa four days earlier by the Prime Minister himself.
Appearing before the media, he was thrilled to be able to extract, in a “constructive tone,” a promise to “formally support” the federal government’s plan to stabilize food prices. He did not want to name specific price reduction goals, only an early plan was planned.
Almost the entire question time on the opening day of parliament was devoted to the problem of the rising cost of living, divided into the topics of housing and food prices. Among the first bills introduced in this new session, those from conservative and new Democratic leaders do not appear to have the government’s approval.
Onion price
The leader of the Conservative Party of Canada (PCC), Pierre Poilievre, and several of his MPs took turns criticizing the prices of houses, but also the prices of lettuce, onions and potatoes. The official opposition reiterated its opposition to the federal carbon price as well as a clean fuels regulation that has been the subject of criticism from the Bloc Québécois.
Mr Poilievre had already announced the outlines of a bill he plans to present this week. The proposal, titled “A law to build housing, not bureaucracy,” risks increasing the bureaucratic burden and contains “only half-measures,” according to criticism from new Housing Minister Sean Fraser.
The conservative text to be published proposes forcing municipalities to build 15% more housing each year, with penalties and bonuses for those who exceed targets. It would provide a complaint board to denounce cases where “not in my backyard” projects are blocked.
More competition
New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh also announced that he would introduce a bill to facilitate the work of the Competition Bureau Canada to combat price-fixing by major banners and restrict possible mergers between them.
The minister responsible for the dossier, François-Philippe Champagne, had still not acknowledged the New Democrats’ proposal as of Monday afternoon. His government is also proposing a reform of competition supervision with similar goals.
The NDP has been criticizing the record profits of large supermarket chains for many months. The party agreed with the Liberal Party to keep Justin Trudeau in power until 2025. The Liberal government promised to comply by introducing a federal drug insurance bill in the fall.
Last year’s fall semester began with the same inflation diagnosis, but with a different means. Then there was talk of sending out bulk checks, one doubling the GST credit and the other for children’s dental care.