The city of Ottawa has announced the creation of a “Grocery Task Force” to investigate industry practices such as “shrinkflation” as Canadians struggle with the rising cost of food. The task force is one of five measures unveiled by Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne in an effort to stabilize food prices. But how exactly will the task force operate and what is shrinkflation? The Grocery Task Force will be a consumer advocacy team established within the Office of Consumer Affairs, which is part of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada. Its main focus will be on the retail sector, monitoring grocers’ adherence to commitments made to the government, as well as actions taken by manufacturers and other players in the food industry. The task force will also investigate and expose practices that harm consumers, such as shrinkflation. Shrinkflation refers to the practice of reducing the size of a product while maintaining the same price. This issue has raised concerns among Canadians, with an Ipsos poll revealing that 84% of respondents were worried about shrinkflation. The task force will also examine other practices like “skimpflation,” which involves decreasing product quality while keeping prices the same. Experts like Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, and Michael von Massow, a professor of food economics at the University of Guelph, agree that the creation of the task force is a positive step, although they emphasize the importance of establishing a baseline for comparison. The Canadian Produce Marketing Association suggests that further information is needed to determine the value of the task force and highlights the potential duplication of existing efforts. Champagne has confirmed that Canada’s top five grocers have made initial commitments, including discounts, price freezes, and price-matching campaigns. Ottawa will also work on a grocery code of conduct to promote fairness and transparency in the industry. Additionally, the legislative framework of the Competition Act will be modernized to support the government’s long-term goals. However, Charlebois believes that more needs to be done to address consumers’ immediate concerns over rising food prices, including the democratization of data and the acceleration of the grocery code implementation. Overall, while the introduction of the task force is a positive step, there is still more work to be done to address the cost of food in Canada.
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