Utopia Talk / Politics / Canada continues to fail

Pillz rank	Tue Jan 20 15:01:45 https://to...-canada-food-inflation-capital CHARLEBOIS: How Canada became the food inflation capital of the G7 “Temporary tax breaks don’t fix inflation — they postpone it and make it worse.” Author of the article:Dr. Sylvain Charlebois Published Jan 19, 2026 • Last updated 21 hours ago • 3 minute read Food prices in Canada rose 6.2% year over year in December, with grocery store prices up 5.0% and restaurant prices jumping 8.5%. That alone would be troubling. What makes it more alarming is that inflation came in well above expectations, pushing Canada to its highest food inflation rate since August 2023. Article content This should stop policymakers in their tracks. It makes little sense that food inflation in Canada is roughly double that of the United States, especially given that Washington has embraced tariffs and trade confrontation far more aggressively than Ottawa. If tariffs were the main driver, the U.S. should be leading this unfortunate ranking. It isn’t. Tax relief comes with a cost Part of December’s spike can be explained by the GST holiday, which applied for 17 days of the month. Temporary tax relief often feels good in the moment, but it comes with a cost: pricing volatility. When taxes are suspended and then reintroduced, price signals become distorted. Retailers and suppliers adjust — sometimes conservatively, sometimes opportunistically. Only now can we properly measure those effects, and the results are not encouraging. At the grocery level, December’s inflation was driven primarily by meat, fish, vegetables, and pantry staples such as coffee. This occurred during the second month of the so-called “blackout period” — the time when retailers ask suppliers not to raise prices. That prices rose anyway tells us something important: cost pressures are real, persistent, and increasingly difficult to contain. And the outlook is worse. January 2026 food inflation is very likely to come in even higher. That should deeply concern anyone who cares about household affordability, food security, or economic competitiveness. Yes, some of Canada’s food inflation reflects global factors — climate volatility, energy costs, and supply disruptions. But most of it is now policy-induced. Regulatory drag, interprovincial trade barriers, poor logistics, rising compliance costs, carbon pricing embedded throughout the supply chain, and a sluggish macroeconomic environment all compound one another. These are not temporary shocks; they are structural weaknesses. Advertisement 4 The first step in solving a problem is acknowledging that it exists. Police-driven inflation problem This is not about blaming one grocer or one executive. If food inflation were driven by profiteering, we would see it clearly in financial statements — in sustained increases in gross margins. Bay Street analysts and accountants would have flagged it long ago. They haven’t, because the data don’t support that narrative. That said, grocers are not entirely blameless. The fact that prices climbed during a blackout period raises legitimate questions about transparency, bargaining dynamics, and how costs are passed through the system. Retailers are not “as white as snow” here, and scrutiny is warranted. But scapegoating them distracts from the real issue. Canada has a policy-driven food inflation problem, and until we are willing to say that out loud, nothing meaningful will change. Temporary tax holidays, populist rhetoric, and finger-pointing may win headlines, but they will not bring prices down. Food inflation is no longer a passing storm. It is a warning signal — and Canada is choosing, so far, to ignore – Sylvain Charlebois is director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, co-host of The Food Professor Podcast and visiting scholar at McGill University
Pillz rank	Tue Jan 20 15:33:58 A few things of importance to note: - Canada has just 3 major food retailers - Despite Wal-Marts entry into the grocery space, a corner-store chain (Circle K/Couch-Tard) is our 4th largest food retailer - Loblaws, which is our largest corporation and largest private employer, is also the nations largest producer of bread and baked goods - Every few years, Loblaws, the other bread companies, Sobey's, and Metro (our #2 and #3 retailers) become embroiled in price fixing scandals - By the time a bread price fixing case is resolved in court, we immediately open a new one - To stop this decades long trend, Loblaws spun off its bakery division and sold it to it another company owned by... The Weston family trust (the Weston's being the owners of Loblaws) - Like in the United States, 90% of items on shelves are owned by a handful of corporations (Kraft, Unilever, etc) So our food market is decided not 'open' or 'free'. While there exist smaller 'independent' grocery stores (individual & chains) these are primarily 'health' focused (ie: expensive items priced even more expensively) or 'international' (ethnic focused, with products imported from the 3rd world, only god himself knowing if they are safe) The Weston family and Loblaws are on a mission to own everything in Canada besides energy. Food, health services software infrastructure (they only seem to compete with Telus, our essentially failed 3rd phone provider), pharmacy services, and they hold a near monopoly on post offices (yes, public service centers for our crown corporation, Canada Post). So that alone is enough to explain, mostly, why food inflation has always been a massive issue in Canada and why it's become entirely rampant since Corona. But the economics of it are also impacted by the Liberal's religiously zealous mission to impose carbon taxes. The oligarchs and Liberals share an underlying vision for Canadians, in which we simply live as serfs at their leisure and mercy. While it's true the mechanics of inflation, the supply chain, and costs are complicated, the truth is that this is all preparation for the Liberal's final goal of a carbon allowance based economy and standard of living. Implementing a food budget policy based on carbon allowance would rightfully end in total chaos. But acclimating us to the reality of limited purchasing power in the super market, under the guise of inflation, is a transitional tactic to segway into that inevitablity. Where our caloric and nutritional needs/wants are not decided by biology and wealth, but by regulation and carbon allowance. Took an uber this week? You get 25 grams less protien this week. I understand that Europeans are aroused at the prospect of this future coming to pass, but I beseech the ignorant retards in America (murder, tw, Hrothgar, etc) to recognize the objective of the left & the ultra wealthy and think deeply upon whether or not this is the reality they want to live in. I'd extend it from 'them' to their kids and grandkids as well, but they've already lost any sense of the moral and biological imperative to procreate, and thus I must apply to the inner hedonist.
Pillz rank	Tue Jan 20 15:36:54 This is, of course, just another face of the evil of Technofeudalism, where we will own nothing, have no wealth, no identity, and no rights.
Pillz rank	Tue Jan 20 18:18:48 As fate would have it, coinciding with the Davos meeting and (at least minor) media attention drawn on food inflation.... Here is another article out of Canada which tries to normalize eating bugs Eating insects: A sustainable solution or an overhyped idea? Published: January 18, 2026 11.27am EST Nina Klioueva, Maude Perreault, Université de Montréal https://th...on-or-an-overhyped-idea-273172 The article contents are not required as the premise is not to be engaged with. Again, America, this is the future you're courting.
murder rank	Tue Jan 20 18:50:28 "Again, America, this is the future you're courting." I'd say that you're free to move across the border, but you probably can't due to Trump. You may be able to get around that by moving to Greenland before Trump takes it. -
Dukhat rank	Tue Jan 20 18:51:52 Pillz descending into Cherub-Cow-territory madness. Mediocre people using the internet always fall into some dark conspiracy hole
Pillz rank	Tue Jan 20 18:56:41 I recognize that Canadian's only hope is the inevitable take over by the United States. There is no longer a fight for our future in Canada that can be waged - Alberta is likely the only region that will escape this doom - and even with the massive turnout and support for independence, that is still far from certain. Our future is predicated on the outcome of this battle in America. If the tw's and Hrothgar's win, then our last hope for salvation dies.
Pillz rank	Tue Jan 20 19:02:04 Cuckhat has still yet to kill himself for some reason. What a pity.
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