Can Ottawa make a dent in housing, grocery prices? What a new bill would do
The Liberal government is looking to spur the construction of new rental stock and increase competition in industries like Canada’s heavily concentrated grocery sector as part of a new bill aimed at improving affordability for Canadians facing a cost of living crisis.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland tabled Bill C-56, the Affordable Housing and Groceries Act, in the House of Commons on Thursday.
It includes two announcements previously signalled by Justin Trudeau’s government: giving a rebate for GST paid on the construction of new purpose-built rentals and reforms to the country’s competition laws aimed at giving more teeth to the federal watchdog.
The new bill, touted over the past week by Liberal ministers, headlines the fall sitting at the House of Commons where affordability issues have thus far dominated debate.
Freeland told reporters later in the day that the bill includes “historic” changes to the way competition law works in Canada, which she argued could have a meaningful impact on grocery prices.
Freeland said that while reform to the Competition Act would affect all industries in Canada, the Liberals’ focus is on grocery affordability.
“More competition will ease sticker shock at the grocery checkout line,” she said.
Changes to the Competition Act proposed in the bill would be the first major review of that legislation since 2009, according to government officials who spoke to media Thursday.
The bill will give the Competition Bureau the ability to compel documents from subjects as part of its probes — something that was cited as a barrier to the watchdog’s investigation of concentration in the grocery sector earlier this year.
The changes would also remove the “efficiencies defence” in approving proposed
Read more on globalnews.ca
