Evidence of meeting #47 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was suppliers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
6:50 p.m.
Conservative
Lianne Rood Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
So you do charge them a lump sum, sometimes to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars or a hundred thousand dollars. That's to farmers, for being able to sell their produce to you.
6:50 p.m.
Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Metro Inc.
Generally, speaking with suppliers—
6:50 p.m.
Conservative
Lianne Rood Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
I'm talking about farmers and produce growers specifically.
6:50 p.m.
Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Metro Inc.
As I said, we negotiate the fees transparently, if there are any. I cannot comment on your specific example. At Metro, we want to make sure we have a transparent negotiation mechanism, and, as I said, it's something we negotiate in good faith transparently.
6:50 p.m.
Conservative
Lianne Rood Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
Okay. Thank you for that.
Do you charge back a percentage to the farmer in order for the farmer to get paid within 15 days versus what typically in the industry is 45 to 90 days?
6:50 p.m.
Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Metro Inc.
We pay the local suppliers very quickly. It's part of our policy to make sure we pay local suppliers more quickly than under our normal payment terms.
6:50 p.m.
Conservative
Lianne Rood Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
So what is faster for you? What is your normal term of payment for a grower?
6:50 p.m.
Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Metro Inc.
It varies per negotiation, but my team tells me it's within days. We want to make sure we pay very quickly.
6:50 p.m.
Conservative
Lianne Rood Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
Well, that's interesting—within days. Are we talking 45 to 90 days? That seems to be standard with grocery stores—
6:50 p.m.
Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Metro Inc.
No, I believe—
6:50 p.m.
Conservative
Lianne Rood Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
—unless they pay extra in a lump sum and you ask them to pay a price in order to be paid within 15 days.
6:50 p.m.
Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Metro Inc.
Again, payment terms are part of the whole negotiation that we do with suppliers, so you can't take one specific example. You have to look at the whole thing that we negotiate with suppliers.
6:50 p.m.
Conservative
Lianne Rood Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
We've also heard from you and from other grocers that you have private labels. We know you have private labels. I'm just wondering if you require your vendors to buy private label packaging from specific vendors that get a rebate from you.
6:50 p.m.
Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Metro Inc.
I'm not aware of that.
6:50 p.m.
Conservative
Lianne Rood Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
Can you confirm or are you aware that there's an unwritten rule with your company that farmers are required to donate yearly to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars to charities of your choice and to purchase tickets to certain events or you'll cease to do business with them?
6:50 p.m.
Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Metro Inc.
No, I'm not aware of that.
6:50 p.m.
Conservative
Lianne Rood Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
I've heard that from some farmers, and that's something that's very concerning to me, because when I see grocery stores charging our growers, nickel-and-diming them for things and for having the privilege of selling to big grocery stores, whether it's your company or other companies, sir, it's disheartening and it's worrisome with respect to our food security and food sovereignty going forward.
If we don't have farmers in the business of growing produce in this country to supply Canadians with healthy, wholesome, homegrown produce, then where are we going to get this from? Are we going to be relying on imports from other countries where we don't know what goes into these—
6:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Kody Blois
Ms. Rood, we're going to have to leave it at that. That is your six minutes, but thank you for your questions.
Thank you, Mr. Thibault.
Mrs. Valdez, you have up to six minutes.
6:55 p.m.
Liberal
Rechie Valdez Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome to the witnesses who are joining our committee.
I'm going to set some context, but the first questions are for both Mr. Thibault and Mr. Cope.
We learned through “Canada's Food Price Report” in 2022 that “lower-income households spend a higher proportion of their income on basic needs such as housing and food and will have a harder time maintaining their existing quality of life as costs go up.”
The question is, how do low-income households adapt their consumption habits when food prices increase?
Go ahead, Mr. Thibault.
6:55 p.m.
Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Metro Inc.
We know and acknowledge how difficult it is for Canadians with rising food prices, and our team works tirelessly to make sure that we offer quality value to customers. Whether it's private label, our discount banners or our weekly promotions on thousands of products, that's what we try to do: offer the best value possible to customers in these difficult times.
6:55 p.m.
Senior Vice-President, Retail Operations, Save-On-Foods LP
Thank you for the question.
Much like my colleague from Metro, that's what we're trying to do every single day through this: provide the best value we possibly can in marketplaces. That varies, because we service communities all across western Canada, and we tailor that to be a little different throughout the year to provide the best value we possibly can to our communities.
Along with that, we're actively involved in supporting those communities as well, because it's hard right now for some families with lower incomes. We're actively involved in any group and organization that's there to help support them. There's not just one approach to this. The other part is that you have to be open to solutions that groups and communities have to help support people.
I don't think there's a one-shot answer to this, but in terms of our stores, we try to provide the best value we possibly can for our customers.
6:55 p.m.
Liberal
Rechie Valdez Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
Thank you.
I can attest that in Mississauga—Streetsville many of my constituents are really struggling and are having a hard time, so I'm curious to hear what measures you're taking at your grocery stores to ensure your products remain accessible to low-income households.
6:55 p.m.
Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Metro Inc.
Similar to what I've said, we try to make sure that we offer the best value possible to our consumers.
We do support the communities. I mentioned the support we do through food banks in Quebec and Ontario, which I think is important. As I said, I think it's also part of our corporate social responsibility to make sure we support the communities in which we operate. A combination of promotions, discounts, good offers through our discount banners and supporting the communities is how we want to make sure that we support the communities.