ACORN Hamilton rallies for an end to price gouging from Canadian grocery giants

ACORN Hamilton took to the streets Saturday, rallying outside FreshCo in the city’s east end, demanding fair food prices and an end to price gouging.

Similar rallies were held in 10 cities across Canada by ACORN this week, with the same mission.

The housing advocacy group says big Canadian grocery chains set new records in 2023 with a profit of $6 billion an increase of eight per cent from 2022.

They say Hamiltonians who earn low-to-moderate incomes, are struggling to make ends meet.

“We have members who are struggling and having to make difficult decisions about medications, food, rent, utility bills if one has to suffer which one are they going to pick,” chair of the east-end chapter of Hamilton ACORN, Stewart Klazinga said.

ACORN says Food Bank Canada’s hunger count revealed there were almost two million food bank visits in Canada last year, the highest level on record.

Kayla Leet, a member of ACORN Hamilton, says people deserve to be able to afford healthy food.

“Necessary food like vegetables, fruits… are too expensive that we eat the cheapest things we can and that’s just not healthy, it’s not gonna sustain anyone,” Leet said.

ACORN Hamilton says giant grocers have too much control, which they say is causing higher prices.

ACORN is demanding Ottawa to “tax the rich” and “cap the price price on essential food items.”

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However, according to food distribution and policy expert Sylvain Charlebois, implementing a windfall tax and price regulations will make things worse.

“Tax grocers will eventually impact food prices and consumers will actually pay for that windfall tax,” Charlebois

“Ottawa implemented a windfall tax on banking two years ago, but I didn’t see banking fees go down…did you?”

This comes as a House of Commons committee is pushing Loblaw and Walmart to agree to the voluntary grocery code of conduct or face potential legislation.

They argue that signing on to the code is crucial for addressing food industry issues.