Canadian chief says income shouldn’t be made ‘on the backs of people who are struggling to feed their families’.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has warned grocery chains that they could possibly be hit with new taxes if they don’t take steps to manage rising meals prices.
Trudeau mentioned the heads of the 5 largest grocery store chains, together with Walmart and Costco, can be requested to provide you with a plan to handle rising prices earlier than Thanksgiving.
Trudeau, who’s dealing with questions on his management amid sagging public approval, additionally introduced that gross sales tax can be waived for the development of new rental flats as a part of measures to handle price-of-dwelling considerations.
“If their plan doesn’t provide real relief for the middle class and people working hard to join it, then we will take further action, and we are not ruling anything out including tax measures,” Trudeau mentioned on the finish of a caucus retreat in London, Ontario, on Thursday.
Trudeau mentioned it didn’t make sense that grocery store chains had been making report income at a time when many Canadians had been struggling to make ends meet.
“Large grocery chains are making record profits,” he mentioned. “Those profits should not be made on the backs of people who are struggling to feed their families.”
Grocery prices rose 8.5 p.c in July from a 12 months in the past, nicely above the final inflation price of three.3 p.c.
Canadian retailers have blamed elevated prices from producers and suppliers, pushed by abroad components together with the struggle in Ukraine, for the rising prices.
“Rather than casting blame where the experts agree it does not belong, the federal government should look in the mirror,” the Retail Council of Canada mentioned in an announcement on Thursday.
“The government could take a number of steps to make food more affordable, including temporarily removing the carbon tax from farmers, food processors and distributors and cancelling [the] government’s planned plastic packaging targets that could increase costs to grocers by $6bn a year.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/9/15/control-grocery-prices-or-face-new-taxes-canadas-trudeau-warns-chains?traffic_source=rss