Alberta NDP proposes ditching grocery store covenants, creating price watchdog in plan to reduce food bills

A Sobey's store in Edmonton on Mar. 14, 2020. (Amanda Anderson/CTV News Edmonton)

The province’s Official Opposition has outlined a plan they say would help make groceries here more affordable.

The Alberta NDP introduced its Alberta Affordability Agenda on Tuesday, saying three moves it would make under its plan would help reduce the price of food.

Naheed Nenshi, the leader of the Alberta NDP, said at a media conference Tuesday at Edmonton’s Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market that his party’s strategy to reduce grocery prices is a more comprehensive scheme than what the governing UCP has come up with to deal with food inflation, specifically the government’s plan to give 3.4-million residents a $100 energy rebate.

The Alberta NDP proposition includes creating an independent grocery watchdog to track food prices and review complaints, ceasing anti-competition grocery covenants that limit where new stores can open, and bringing in ‘shrinkflation’ laws that require products to have clear labels informing consumers when they are reduced in size but stay the same price.

“Ultimately, we need more systemic answers to this,” Nenshi told media. “We are able to do these things that have been proven in other jurisdictions to actually work.”

On June 17, Premier Danielle Smith announced the $100 rebate, saying it would provide a bigger benefit for Albertans than dropping the province’s fuel tax.

All residents aged 18 and over who have filed a tax return in 2025 and have a household income of less than $225,000 are eligible for the benefit.

“Our government recognizes that families are feeling the pinch, which is why we’re taking action to put more money back in their pockets,” Smith told reporters last week.

“This approach will ensure elevated oil revenues deliver real benefits to Albertans, benefits that don’t disappear at the pumps.”

The Alberta NDP’s proposal comes as the province’s Consumer Price Index rose 3.7 per cent year over year, compared with 3.2 per cent nationally, Statistics Canada reported last week.

National inflation rose from 2.8 per cent in April, with energy prices driving much of the increase across the country. Across Canada, gasoline prices rose 33.2 per cent year over year, driven by supply concerns related to war in the Middle East and shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.

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Statistics Canada reported that food purchased from stores nationally rose 4.3 per cent year over year, marking the 16th consecutive month grocery inflation outpaced the overall inflation rate.

Fresh vegetables rose nine per cent year over year, while fresh fruit prices rose 5.3 per cent. Statistics Canada attributed those increases to reduced supply and higher fuel costs.

Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, the director of the agri-food analytics lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax, said Tuesday that the federal government ultimately needs a better system to enable food retailers to reduce prices.

“The food inflation problem we have in Canada is mainly structural,” he told CTV News Calgary. “You have to look at policy like the industrial carbon tax, like inter-provincial trade barriers, labelling laws – the bureaucracy.”

He says those issues force companies to perform work that’s unrelated to them making money.

“That’s a big problem right now in Canada. We tend not to see it, but now we are seeing it,” Charlebois said. “We don’t have an efficient food system in Canada, and that needs to change.”

With files from CTV News Calgary’s Michael Franklin, Mason DePatie and Kevin Green