Canada's Competition Bureau has launched investigations into the parent companies of grocery chains Loblaws and Sobeys for alleged anticompetitive conduct, court documents reveal, with Sobeys' owner calling the inquiry "unlawful."
Industry minister François-Philippe Champagne has said he’s seeking a foreign grocer to strengthen competition in the Canadian market. Loblaws' parent company is co-operating with the bureau's review, said spokeswoman Catherine Thomas on behalf of George Weston Ltd. Through a subsidiary, Empire holds a 41.5 per cent interest in Crombie Real Estate Investment Trust, and Empire is an anchor tenant in the majority of Crombie’s properties, the documents say, adding that Empire’s ownership interest in Crombie puts it in a position to exercise influence over the REIT.
Restrictive covenants in private contracts, the commissioner says, "limit or restrict" how a piece of land can be used and can apply even after changing ownership. The property controls, the commissioner says, may give the companies "the ability to exclude actual or potential competitors from selling food products within certain geographic areas or to dictate the terms upon which they carry on business."
In a separate application in Federal Court that has yet to be decided by a judge, the company denies that property controls are anti-competitive and says they "are not unique to the grocery sector, but have been widely used for decades in a range of retail and other sectors across the country." Canada’s major grocers have recently been under public and political pressure as food prices have risen by double digits over just a handful of years.
Two days after a Vatican-mandated investigation found no evidence that Gerald Lacroix committed sexual abuse, the Quebec cardinal released a video statement saying he did nothing wrong.The Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation revealed details of the latest offer from the province on Thursday, following two days of virtual town halls between the federation and its members.
2b Theatre recently moved into the old Video Difference building, seeking to transform it into an artistic hub, meeting space, and temporary housing unit for visiting performers in Halifax.British Columbia’s premier has revealed a cyberattack on a health authority is another ransomware incident, while experts say it appears to be a different group of criminals than those behind two other attacks this month.
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