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HOST: VASSY KAPELOS
VASSY KAPELOS: First, though...
MICHAEL MEDLINE (Empire CEO): We don't like inflation. We don't like the choices it forces our customers to make. And we are not benefiting from it. We at Sobeys are on board to help lower food prices. But I also believe that there are short and medium term actions parliament can take to relieve affordability pressures on Canadians.
KAPELOS: The CEO of one of Canada's largest grocery chains, Empire's Michael Medline, back on Parliament Hill today facing a grilling from MPs on food prices. The feds started off the fall with a promise for a plan to stabilize food prices by Thanksgiving, but it turned out that plan required major buy-in from corporations. So is the federal plan working? And bottom line for, you will food prices be going down anytime soon? Here to debate that, Liberal MP from British Columbia Taleeb Noormohamed, Conservative house leader Andrew Scheer, and NDP finance critic Daniel Blaikie. Hi everybody. Good to see you. Thank you very much for making the time for the conversation. Mr. Noormohamed, I'll start with you, and start off on that promise that your government made just a few weeks in advance of Thanksgiving to force grocers to stabilize prices. When I asked the finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, what that meant, she said very simply it meant stop them from going up, yet food prices are still going up according to StatsCan by five percent above headline inflation in October. Why should Canadians trust your government to do anything about food prices when you couldn't even fulfill that initial pledge?
TALEEB NOORMOHAMED (Liberal British Columbia): So since the initial pledge was made, our government has been working hard with, in working with grocers, but also working hard for Canadians to ensure that grocers do understand that they have an obligation to do the right thing here. Look, it's not a regulated industry, right, and so one of the realities that we face is we have to make sure that we are putting in place the measures, and also the carrot and the stick, for groceries to be able to work with us and to see that there is a necessity comply. The other part of this...