Yes.
Evidence of meeting #28 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was employees.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #28 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was employees.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3 p.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
Why, in response to my colleague, did you say it was due to extenuating circumstances? What extenuating circumstances are you talking about?
3 p.m.
President, Loblaw Companies Limited
I'm talking about the extenuating situation, the circumstances surrounding COVID-19 and the panic buying in our stores. It was for the appreciation for the hard work that the colleagues did.
3 p.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
Surely you agree with me that extenuating circumstances and appreciation are not the same thing.
3 p.m.
President, Loblaw Companies Limited
It was appreciation for dealing with the extenuating situation.
3 p.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
Okay, so have you ever offered your employees appreciation pay before?
3 p.m.
President, Loblaw Companies Limited
Not in that way. A two-dollar premium for a period of time, no, we have never done that.
3 p.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
Okay. You're suggesting that you had to hire new employees. Could that have had something to do with it as opposed to pretending that this is about appreciation?
3 p.m.
President, Loblaw Companies Limited
We did it for both. We had people who we needed to hire—of course we had to hire—and we did it in appreciation of our colleagues.
3 p.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
As you know, in your opening remarks you said you're a company that communicates well and listens well. Now, I'm sure you've seen all the media accounts where everyone is quite surprised as to how all of a sudden this two-dollar bump in pay was taken away. Do you understand where the media's coming from? Do you understand why Canadians are somewhat shocked?
3 p.m.
President, Loblaw Companies Limited
The media may be surprised. None of the colleagues in my business were surprised.
3 p.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
I'm not asking about your colleagues. I'm asking about Canadians in general. Do you understand why they're concerned?
3 p.m.
President, Loblaw Companies Limited
We said that it was a temporary premium. Are you asking me should they be surprised?
3 p.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
No. Why is it that the media is all over this? You even went through the trouble of cherry-picking a few letters that had been sent in by employees thanking you, but you completely ignore all these media accounts where everyone's concerned. Your own employees have gone to the media and said that your stores weren't exactly doing their best to make sure that they were protected.
3 p.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
The question is this: Why would you cherry-pick a letter from one employee who had positive things to say about this and completely ignore the fact that numerous employees of Loblaw have gone to the media and said that they really were very much concerned about working at your grocery stores?
3 p.m.
President, Loblaw Companies Limited
The information that I have from my colleagues does not suggest that. We do surveys all the time, and the information that I have is that they understood the ending of the—
3 p.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
Ms. Davis, a Toronto Life article just came out. An employee who was there working for three months during COVID-19 said that the soap dispenser in the men's employee washroom ran out the first month he was working there. Then he says, “and remained empty, despite requests to fill it, for all of May and the better part of June.”
How would you respond to that?
3 p.m.
President, Loblaw Companies Limited
I don't know the specifics of that situation, but I know at the beginning we would have had issues with getting sanitizers into our stores. As far as I'm concerned, that's been corrected. I don't know the specifics of that.
3 p.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
You agree it happened, but you're just saying it was corrected. Is that correct?
3 p.m.
Liberal
3 p.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
—despite the fact that everyone was saying we have to wash our hands.
You also go on to say that your stores were “absolutely safe”. Were there no incidents in the various stores you have?