While inflation has eased since 2022 and is now trending around two per cent annually, the actual cost of essentials hasn’t gone down. The overall price of the typical basket of goods and services for the average Canadian household rose by a hefty 17.4 per cent between 2019 and 2024. The increase was even higher for food (23.3 per cent), shelter (24.0 per cent) and transportation (21.6 per cent)—notably for gasoline (55.6 per cent).
Has mainstream media’s coverage of affordability issues or price-gouging (e.g., grocery stores) slowed or stopped?
Tropicana orange and other fruit juice used to come in 2L containers, about $3 or so. I was at a Loblaws-owned discount grocery store yesterday, and saw the container had shrunk even more, to 1.65L, from 1.75L at the time of my previous purchase. They were also selling it for $7.49 😳
My reactions were 1) what outrageous unchecked corporate greed, 2) mainstream media doesn’t cover this any more, and 3) companies seem so confident nowadays that they can do whatever they please
Its not price gouging, its excess money supply, because the Covid stimulus was entirely funded by the Bank of Canada, who ignored their inflation mandate during Covid. Heres a graph from the Boc outlining the inflation in 2021, which hits us with a lag as the money flows through the economy.
https://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/indicators/key-variables/monetary-aggregates/
The phillips curve depicts the relationship between inflation and wage pressure, higher inflation means more wage power, and wage gains. But during the inflation Canada did mass immigration, to force down wage pressure. So everyone is now poorer on a per capita basis than they were prior to mass immigration, that is why families dont have any money. Canada has also had the second to last worst per capita GDP performance out of the 38 countries of the OECD, we beat only Luxembourg, so people are poorer.
What’s talked about by out new PM at least is that wages are too low. That’s the other side of the problem. We tend to increase wages instead of decreasing prices because we don’t like deflation. That said for wages to go up we need the government to strengthen labour and I’m not sure that’s happening. At least not yet. Also I think your conclusions are correct.
Yep, taking the poorest and restricting their disposable income is pretty much how you kill an economy.
Companies can do whatever they please. What are you gonna do? Stop eating? And half our population supports it by voting for continued unchecked capitalism and privatization.
