Ontario Premier Doug Ford held a private meeting with the CEO of one of Canada’s largest grocery chains, government records reveal, as the Progressive Conservatives rejected efforts by opposition parties to further regulate the industry.
Amid an affordability crisis and increasing costs at grocery stores, the Ontario NDP and Liberals tabled legislation and motions at Queen’s Park to restrict companies from using surveillance pricing to target customers, hoping to drive down prices for essential items.
The effort, however, was immediately dismissed by Premier Doug Ford, who suggested that type of government intervention would be considered “socialism.”
“I believe in capitalist society, free market, the market dictates,” Ford said on April 16 when asked directly whether his government would ban surveillance pricing in grocery stores in Ontario.
“If ABC grocery store wants to compete against the other one, that’s what the true driver is. Free and fair competition and let the market dictate on food prices.”
One day after Ford shot down the proposal, the premier had a one-on-one meeting with the CEO of Loblaw Companies, which owns Loblaws, No Frills, Real Canadian Superstore, Fortino’s and T&T Supermarket.
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According to the premier’s calendar, obtained by Global News through freedom of information laws, the meeting with Loblaw CEO Per Bank took place at Ford’s Etobicoke home on Friday, April 17, and was attended by a single staffer.
While the calendar doesn’t reveal the subject of the conversation, Bank registered to lobby the Ford government on a variety of subjects, including “policies and issues related to the retail sector” and “policies related to data and privacy.”
The premier’s office didn’t answer a number of questions about the meeting, including whether surveillance pricing or leasing agreements were discussed and why the lunch hour meeting took place at Ford’s home.
“Premier Ford frequently meets with a number of businesses and stakeholders, including one of Canada’s largest employers and retailers,” the premier’s office said in a statement.
A statement from Loblaw said the company is “already on the record as not using surveillance pricing” and is pushing the grocery sector “to remove property controls.”
“As Canada’s largest private-sector employer, and a major employer in Ontario, we regularly meet with elected officials at all levels of government and across the political spectrum to discuss issues affecting our colleagues, our customers, our business and the communities we serve,” the company said in a statement.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the timing of the meeting – one day after Ford dismissed the idea of legally forbidding surveillance pricing – isn’t a coincidence.
“We’d tabled a motion and asked the government to support the motion to stop predatory surveillance pricing and the Conservative government voted against our motion,” Stiles said.
“It is no surprise to me that Doug Ford is listening, as he always does, to the CEOs, to the CEO of Loblaws, because he’s clearly not listening to the people of Ontario. He is making a choice, and this is about choices.”
The effort to eliminate the practice of surveillance pricing began in Manitoba, where Premier Wab Kinew’s government tabled legislation to crack down on “the misuse of personal data to inflate prices.”
In mid-April, both opposition parties at Queen’s Park made identical attempts to introduce surveillance pricing laws in Ontario. The NDP went one step further and asked the legislature to “remove existing controls on real property that have the effect of limiting and controlling competition among food retailers.”
Neither bill received support from the Ford government.
At the same time, as Ford prepared to host the Loblaw CEO at his home for a 45-minute meeting, the premier said he was willing to target grocery store chains “if there’s collusion on pricing” but dismissed other interventions.
“There’s no better way of letting people get lower costs on no matter if it’s cars or homes or groceries than competition,” Ford said. “That’s a capitalist society. The other one is socialism. Socialism does not work.
“You go around and dictating and overseeing every single price.”
Ford’s meeting with Bank was not publicized by the premier’s office, nor does it show up on Ford’s social media accounts.
Stiles said the private meeting is in line with how Ford conducts business.
“I think it’s one of the reasons why Doug Ford hides his cellphone records from the people because he doesn’t want people to know who he’s meeting with, who’s giving him the information, who he really serves,” Stiles said.
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Debbie no one is stopping you or anyone else from opening a grocery chain. No one is impeding foreign companies from opening here. Lidil for example is expanding into the usa, but not Canada. Ask yourself why? Thin margins and large shipping costs since most of our food is imported.
Ford’s private meetings at home and no transparency, not on parliamentary schedules is very disturbing!! He is by passing review boards and checks…that is not Democratic. The corporate grocery stores have total control, are gauging citizens because there is no competition!!! Ontario, Canada needs more grocery chains allowed into the country. The more grocery chains creates competition for quality and pricing. This Corporate takeover of smaller chains is why we are in this situation of outrageous food prices today. It’s pure greed!!!!! Ford is for the wealthy not for Ontarians well being. He’s shown us this many times. The worst beingtrying to doing away with RENT CONTROL in Ontario while in one of the worst financial crisis in decades. He’s running rogue and is chipping away at Democracy!!! He’s a BIG RED FLAG Canadians and Ontarians
Clearly Ford does NOT care about the people of Ontario. Typical of CONservatives.
Gaelen Weston Junior, the CEO of Loblaw’s whose name you’ve been avoiding is in the Epstein files for helping with communications and venues for certain parties
Legislation against targeted price inflation is no where near “overseeing every price”, it protects Canadians against misuse of information and price gouging. There is no way to view the issue as anything beyond price gouging. Since Covid CEO profits have gone nowhere but up, there will never be enough, and since groceries are a necessity, Canadians absolutely need governments to take action.
To Mark. The federal conservatives are not in power right now so blaming them is really ignorant. Doug is a liberal.
Socialism doesn’t work? Is that why China is the biggest economy on the planet? Is that why they are the undisputed heavyweight in manufacturing? Biggest rare earth manufacturer. Biggest battery/ev manufacturer? They are these things because of socialist government financial support and direction on growth. Also russia has the western world sanctioning them and bombing them but they are great. Their economy even grew in this climate. All the while the western world is succumbing to mass inflation and housing shortages. Where do I sign up for socialism, it actually seems to be working great.
I hope spoiled a$$ Doug Ford gets voted out. Fat. Privileged. Rich. Incompetent. Good at rallying dumb people together for dumb reasons. I hate our government. Both parties. Do better for the people who are struggling while y’all like your pockets.
Hey “some guy”. Loblaws is a nationwide company. Take your concerns to the feds.
Doug just being the slime ball that he is.
Free capitalism works when there’s healthy competition. That is so far from the environment of the grocery markets in Canada. They’re monopolized between 4 corporations that is the very definition of not a healthy capitalism market by any means. This digital pricing is only favoring them, not the consumer in any way shape or form.
This is another Ford screwup and I don’t know what the hell all you idiots voted this moron in again. Thanks for being stupid.
Where are the low cost European grocery stores we were told would be coming??
The Canadian Public has and still is, being screwed over by all Governments. Why is it that only Lawyers and Big Business are the only ones we have to vote for? I realize now just how bad our Canada is getting under those rich self entitled rich.
Wasn’t Tommy Douglas a Social Credit who worked for the people and not for the Oligarchs. How did we get here while fighting for affordability on Food, and Homes (that are Auctioned off) rather then when they were sold to the first interested buyer with the Down Payment??
I refuse to vote anymore for a Corrupt Politician, because that is all that’s available! There are no honest leaders.
Dumb and Dumber cornholing each other
Did Olivia meet with Grocers before her free grocery store scheme came about?
Now the middle class pays triple for one tomato.
Two pieces of shat 69ing each other
Hey Disgusted. Shouldn’t you be out on your bike with your fellow “activists” in your day of rage over the removal of what were supposed to be temporary bike lanes?
Anoymous
“This includes not allowing competitors within a certain distance when signing leases, and putting pressure on suppliers.”
Really? There are grocery stores a block apart or across the street from each other
@Jane Wilson. So all the economists are wrong to say that the food industry is too oligopolistic? The reason why other retailers fail is because there are barriers to entry. This includes not allowing competitors within a certain distance when signing leases, and putting pressure on suppliers.
If the grocery sector wasn’t efficient, Target, Carrefour and others would be here doing booming business. Target failed. Carrefour is too smart to try. Politicians and journalists don’t know anything about the food business either.
Alex nothing is stopping you from creating your own company. We are not defending Loblaws by simply educating sheep like you on how the economy works. And FYI, that CEO’s salary is actually 5 million less than the average for Canadian companies of that size. And that is because of the razor thin profit margins in food distribution.
One thing today’s Conservatives have no understanding of… the real meaning of socialism. Public schools, socialism. Police, fire, ambulance, hospitals.. socialism. OHIP, socialism. They won’t admit though, that’s why they always try to privatize everything. Suppose to work for the people Dougie. All of the people in Ontario, not just your corporate and developer buddies. This is one reason why your party will get decimated in the next election. Your poll numbers are already in the toilet. Loblaws is the largest chain and their profit numbers are breaking records. Anyone that tells you that isn’t true, is probably a shareholder or one of Dougie’s supporters, not that there’s many left.
Apologies Anonymous, you are right, Loblaws is not a monopoly, it is part of an oligopoly and is the largest food retailer in the country. Loblaws controls roughly 31% of the market so in many ways they set the market being the largest.
I am not saying they can’t profit year over year, I am not saying that they can’t raise food prices, I am saying I find it absolutely disgusting that this is the reality that we live in.
But please, continue to defend the big box stores and the oligopoly and the CEO’s making $11.6 million dollars because clearly they need all the help they can get.
“such a cowardly way to post”
Yes because you are posting your full name and details.
Loblaws doesn’t have a monopoly you genius.
If you think you can run a grocery chain on less profit than Loblaws then nothing is stopping you Alex from doing so. As CEO you are free to pay yourself whatever you want, or work for free.
Anonymous (such a cowardly way to post), I understand companies are meant to profit, doesn’t mean I can’t be disgusted at said company holding a monopoly and profiting by making food unaffordable while we are facing an affordability crisis.
To echo the points of “enough already”, if they can pay their CEO $11,600,000 a year it must be pretty lucrative.
Mark, you’re an idiot. Pierre has nothing to do with grocery stores
The Poilievre and Ford conservatives are inexplicably intertwined. There have now been reports BOTH have been meeting with big monopolistic grocery chains. Scandalous!
And another point for Alex, if its lucrative as you make it sound, then ask yourself why don’t we have more large chains here in Canada like what exists in other western economies? Because its not hugely profitable. You have to factor in how many stores and inf exist.
Alex “Loblaws is profiting year over year?”
You do understand that this is exactly how private enterprise is supposed to work, right? Companies don’t buy 2,400 prices of land, build stores, build distribution centers, buy a huge fleet to transport good, hire over 200 thousand people, enter into purchase agreements with vendors all across the globe because our climate is too cold to grow most of the food we consume, just to lose money.
They do it to earn a profit.
Instead ask yourself why governments fail to make it attractive for more large grocer chains to exist in Canada.
Me, please do tell how government not setting fixed prices at grocery stores somehow opens the gates for money laundering.
Oh what kind of money laundering plan do these 2 scumbags have in mind?
The Loblaws CEO made $11.6 million in 2024. The average Loblaws employee makes $17-$19 an hour.
Based on a 40 hour week the CEO is making $5,576 per hour which is (using $19 as the average hourly rate) 29,246% more than the average employee.
That is truly disgusting. People are starving just so a CEO can make $11.8 million. Of course Ford is on the side of the rich CEO and not the people he was elected to serve. We need real change and an actual leader, not just a rich boy with a silver spoon in his mouth pandering to executives, ceo’s and developers.
I could care less about which political party he is part of, Ford just need to go!
For anyone who thinks that the others would be worse than Doug Ford, they are wrong. Doug Ford is proving to be far worse. They also forgot how bad Mike Harris was.
Liberal, conservative… it doesnt matter theyre all crooks. Its time we started executing politicians for any level of corruption… we only need to execute a few and the rest will fall in line
Bob, does the number of stores change the fact that in an affordability crisis where many folks can’t afford the rising cost of groceries Loblaws is profiting year over year? They are literally profiting while people are starving so asking which stores sort of seems like semantics used to try and undermine a point.
Alex across how many stores was that 15.270 billion revenue? As per Google, the company has over 2,400 locations.
Ford is as conservative as those who crossed the floor…
As has always been the case, tgis premier and his regime are only focussed on their personal wealth and their big corporate donors. The whole “little guy” routine was just that, a schtick. Ontarions fell for the man behind the curtain, gaslighting them.
Time to get rid of this dirt bag Ford. Just like trumpet he’s in it for himself only. He couldn’t care less about anyone else.
Loblaws Second Quarter 2026 Results
Retail revenue: $15.046 billion (an increase of 4.1% year-over-year).
Total revenue (including PC Financial): $15.270 billion.
Adjusted diluted EPS: $0.66 (beating analyst estimates slightly).
Same-store sales:
Food retail grew 1.6%;
drug retail grew 4.6%.
E-commerce sales: Increased by 19.3%.
While people are literally starving or making really tough choices about whether to buy food or pay rent it is pretty disgusting that Loblaws is having yet another hugely profitable year.
Capitalism only works by keeping a certain percentage of the population at poverty levels. Pretty disgusting that the Doug Ford is totally fine with folks living in poverty just to ensure the CEO’s get their annual bonuses.
Lol. All these clowns pretending Ford is a conservative. Newsflash kids. Ford has NO ideology or loyalty to anything. He’s an opportunist who would sell his mother for power. He craves the PM role. Awful human. 😒
Just another corrupt conservative
Slug ford allows us to be price gouged, he works from home, he tells Toronto what we can/can’t do, etc.. He’s Ontario’s chump. A corrupt, petty authoritarian criminal. If you still vote for this and his far-right regime, may you burn in hell.
Oh how shocking, a corrupt conservative! Worse than the damned Liberals I tell you, absolutely entrenched in the pockets of his rich buddies while everyday Ontarians starve. Too wrapped up moaning about bike lanes and bulldozing the island to do his job and actually govern. Not that will stop his fanboys from falling over themselves to worship at his feet, of course. They *like* when a big strong man steps on their necks with his shiny little shoes.
Good in him
Meeting with top level executives to.discus issues relevant to the province is part of rhe job
Greedy native guys want to be considered sovereign but expect welfare from canada ahahahhaa Say we want to retain culture and save the environment but eant 50% ownership of every pipeline and mine in canada just gready Indian giver ahahah jokes right
He was letting his boss know that he was a good employee of the CEO.
Crooked
Get over it Colin. We can’t over regulate a competitive industry with very thing profit margins. He meets with industry leaders and that helps gather information and it shapes governance
Greedy white Man of course. And they leave nasty comments on line about Native people,there you go. Nice white man. 👏👏👏👏👏👏Joke 🤣🤣🤣🤣.
If Ford cares about free market, then he should be fine with Chinese automakers.
Purge them all. Flush the toilette.
please stop calling ford a conservative,I see him much more a liberal
It is getting very obvious Global.
You have an issue with Dougie
You think those other 2 could do better?
History says..no
But they’ve been caught fixing prices numerous times. In what way is that letting the market dictate the prices? Doug Ford = corporate stooge