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In the House of Commons hearing last month, La Flèche said he made calls in May and June to his counterparts at Loblaw and Empire to ask if they were planning to cancel the bonuses and was told neither had made a decision. Empire chief executive Michael Medline said he asked his general counsel to join the call with La Flèche and declined to speak about the pay premiums. All three grocers denied any wrongdoing.
La Flèche told the committee his calls to competitors were in “perfect compliance” with the Competition Act.
Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, however, has said he believes enough evidence came out during the committee meeting to warrant a Competition Bureau investigation. In an interview last month, Erskine-Smith said that, if the bureau didn’t find reason to investigate, he would explore changing Canadian competition laws.
“If the Competition Bureau is of the view that they aren’t going to proceed with an investigation because our laws are not fit for purpose with respect for wage fixing, then we have to have a different conversation internally with the minister to say, ‘How do we fix these laws?’” Erskine-Smith told the Financial Post last month.
On Wednesday, Erskine-Smith confirmed he was planning on following through, saying in an email that he was “working on a brief that compares our weak laws against wage fixing with the much stronger competition laws in the United States,” and raising the issue with Industry Minister Navdeep Bains’ office.
