Are publicly run grocery stores the solution to food insecurity and rising prices?

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]As we heard earlier, Quebec Solidaire is debating the idea of publicly run grocery stores as a solution to rising food prices. It's an idea Toronto and the leader of the NDP have floated about and the mayor of New York City has promised one in every borough. Joining me now is Gabriel Giguere with the Montreal Economic Institute. Nice to see you, Gabriel.

[00:00:21]Hi, it's a pleasure.

[00:00:23]So first, what exactly are public grocery stores?

[00:00:28]Well, basically we could see the state subsidizing every one grocery. It can also be public servant that work in the grocery store. So we'll see how form it will it will be in the proposition, but what we can see is something that could be very costly for for taxpayer because you need to subsidize it and there is the pretension where the public grocery stores can do as good as the private groceries, which would might be difficult because the reality is that that market is living basically through very, very thin margin. We're talking about 3 to 5% and so it might be very difficult and we'll see.

[00:01:10]Why do you think they're having such a moment right now?

[00:01:13]The reality right now is that with the mayor of New York City Mandani, they the mayor pushed it this idea in the public sphere and they basically decided to go forward with five public grocery stores. Now we see a momentum with Toronto. So it's currently at the municipal level. As you said, the new the new chief of the New Democratic Party talked about it, but it's still not in the in if it's not shared by public party in power, political party in power. So we'll see how it goes, but what we need to understand is that a lot of saving is floating in the political commentary.

[00:01:56]We're seeing that they they are floating a possibility of reducing groceries bill by 30 to 40% which is at best creative accounting basically because as we said it's only 3 to 5% of margin and public groceries don't live into the same economic mechanism or incentive incentive because if the consumer doesn't want to buy product on the public groceries shelves well it's not necessarily a problem for that groceries because they can take your money as a taxpayer not only as a consumer. So it's problematic because if it's not working which might be the case to be honest because there is also international example that as in word Kansas City Market is a very [snorts] very good example because what we saw is that in couple of years it cost $29 million in taxpayers money and they were not able to offer perishable goods because of the complex logistic it didn't work and so we know it's very complex as a market and the state might not be able to do so specifically when we're looking into some some some bad management such as Canada Post.

[00:03:13]Do you think that a lot of people are maybe making some assumptions about why our grocery prices are so high because it does seem to be like the conversation seems to always go back to the retailers themselves those big corporations. Is it corporate greed or are there other things at play in your view?

[00:03:30]That's the big question and I do believe it's not corporate greed as we just said margin are very thin 3 to 5% and so the reality is that there is policy that affect the price. We can think about the carbon tax. We can also think about tariffs. So we usually think about Donald Trump when we're talking about tariff but if we look into the World Trade Organization about Canada, what we're looking at is that Canada is imposing on average 15% tariffs for agricultural importation. There's also trade barrier regarding interprovincial trade, notably about agriculture and food. And there is also one thing that is kind of sacred in in in Canada, which shouldn't be, which is the supply management policy where milk, egg, chicken, turkey is more expensive than the the market. And so it costs a lot of money for Canadians, and the government is able to have a role in reducing those price.

[00:04:31]But the reality is that it won't come from the public groceries.

[00:04:36]We only have about 30 seconds, but what are a few policies that you feel may be more effective in solving the affordability issues we're seeing?

[00:04:44]I think the government should definitely start by abolishing those tariffs on agricultural importation, but they also need to abolish supply management. It's not only problematic for our trade relation. We can think about the UK, New Zealand, but also United States where it was a big problem, but this will save the hundreds of dollars for Canadian families. So government can play a role.

[00:05:09]It won't be through public groceries.

[00:05:13]All right, Gabriel Giguere, thank you so much for taking the time.

[00:05:17]It's a pleasure.