Mr. Speaker, that is exactly the point. We do have a massive concentration of grocery chains in this country, and the response from the Liberal government has been to just ask them politely to stop gouging Canadian consumers. That is absolutely unacceptable and one of the reasons why I am so critical of the Liberal government in this regard. The minister of industry asked them politely, and it did not change anything at all.
What it takes is action. Other countries have taken action by having an excess profits tax and by having an enhancement for competition, just as the member for Burnaby South, the leader of the NDP, has brought forward for the Competition Act, so that the Competition Bureau can actually take action against the rise in prices that are simultaneous and, obviously, in a very real sense, price-fixing. We saw this when it came to the great bread price-fixing saga. This happened under the Conservatives, and they did not take any action at all. The Liberals finally did. I will give them some credit for that, but the reality is that the cost of what was gouged, or stolen, was an average of $400 from every Canadian family. My colleague from the Bloc said we cannot say “steal”, but the price-fixing majors, the grocery giants, stole an average of $400 from every Canadian family. That was price-fixing. They raised the price of bread and they stole $400 from every Canadian family over the course of a number of years. That is theft.
What it takes is a government that is willing to stand up to the grocery chains, willing to legislate against them and willing to implement those tools, including an excess profits tax and enhanced consumer protection legislation, and then basically telling the CEOs that unless they stop gouging people, the government will take action, as it has all these tools in place. We know that did not happen under the Conservatives. It has happened very rarely under the Liberals.
What it will take is an NDP government that actually stands up for working people. We are prepared to do just that.