Tag Archives: Loblaws

Jobs

Living Wage Symposium brought multiple sectors together to tackle the affordability crisis

Editor’s note: This is a local issue. 33% of the respondents to the most recent Point In Time count of Campbell River’s unhoused population said they lost their homes because of insufficient income. In the Comox Valley, this statistic rose to 56%. According to the 2021 Census, 38% of the renters in those areas are paying more than they can afford for shelter. This is also true on Quadra Island and on Cortes Island the number of tenants paying unaffordable rents was 47%.

By Sidney Coles, Capital Daily, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

On Wednesday morning, representatives from the not-for-profit, private and public sectors gathered at the Living Wage Symposium at Victoria City Hall to discuss creative ways they can address the economic squeeze people are feeling in the CRD. The event was organized by the Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria (CSPC) in partnership with the United Way Southern Vancouver Island, Vancity, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Living wage Families for BC.  

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Food

Parliamentary committee questions grocery chain CEOs over high food prices while studying food price inflation

By Natasha Bulowski, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Grocery chain CEOs fielded tough questions from MPs at a parliamentary committee meeting attempting to get to the root of why Canadians are facing such high food prices.

Across the food and beverage industry, net income has more than doubled, and this is reflected in the balance sheets of all three companies under scrutiny at the committee, said Liberal MP Ryan Turnbull.

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Housing, Politics

Rachel Blaney: Canada needs a ‘Bar of Dignity’

According to data from the 2016 census, 20% of Quadra Island residents and 27% of Cortes Island residents are paying more for their homes in rent or mortgages than they can afford. More recent studies suggest that a significant number of families throughout the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) are so financially stretched that they are at risk of becoming homeless. 75% of the ‘housing insecure’ respondents to the ‘Collecting Stories of Where We Live’ survey on Cortes Island, and 33% on Quadra Island, are working. These are some of the people North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney is referring to, when she talks about the need for a bar of dignity.

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Food

Canada’s Competition Bureau will study grocery chain pricing

By Natasha Bulowski, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Canada’s Competition Bureau is launching a study on the grocery store sector as food prices rise at the fastest rate in 40 years.

The announcement came after the NDP’s opposition day motion to tackle high food prices received unanimous support in the House of Commons. From now until June 2023, the bureau says it will examine how governments can combat grocery price increases through greater competition.

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Farming, Food

Grocery shopping online could put farmers out of business

By Marc Fawcett-Atkinson, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Grocery shopping online is convenient. A convenience farmers fear could put them out of business. 

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