“The Office of the Grocery Sector Code of Conduct (OGSCC) organization [has] announced the com-pletion of its governance framework, marking a significant milestone in the implementation of the Canada Grocery Code.”
High-flown rhetoric – taken almost word-for-word from the official OGSCC news release. But for all its important-sounding content, the Code of Conduct (CGCC) itself is really just a fancy front for a grocery industry effort to enshrine the privileges it’s always enjoyed as a leading, essential sector of our economy. Everybody’s got to eat. And they know it!
What it really says…
And the government is apparently ‘in it’ with the grocers, hand-in-glove…
“We applaud the collective work done on the industry-led grocery sector code of conduct to land this governance framework and the leadership shown by the Office of the Grocery Sector Code of Con-duct.” said the Honourable Heath MacDonald, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. “By coming to-gether to establish clear principles of fairness and transparency, the sector is building a stronger, accessible and more resilient supply chain.”
And there’s where the problem resides… The CGCC coalition is self-governing. So no one is going to force members to do anything they don’t want to do. Their declared purpose, as stated in the About Us section of the official website, is to serve the industry, not the public: “The Code is principle based and, by providing clear standards and an accessible framework for dispute resolution, the Code strengthens trust across the industry and supports long-term competitiveness.”
The organization has, all along, insisted that this overall goal will benefit consumers by ensuring competition among members. Stronger, equitable competition is supposed to lead to lowering of retail prices.
Nonsense.
That ain’t gonna happen. Not as long as the government stands back, refusing to step into the food price fray and mandate lower prices.
A toothless lion
In fact, if you take the time to read the official CGCC ‘Guidance Document’, How to Navigate the Canada Grocery Code of Conduct, you’ll see all the pimples and pocks on the face of the document that don’t show up at first glance.
The ‘Get Out Of Jail Free’ dimension of the Code is clearly stated in the explanation of how the ‘fair-ness and good faith’ aspect of the Code applies: “‘Good Faith’ is specifically defined in the Code as: ‘a standard of conduct applicable to a party’s obligations under this Code that is not only consistent with Applicable Laws but also with the Principles and Objectives set out in this Code, characterized by fair dealing, honesty, openness, and transparency without duress and with due regard to the interests of the other party’.
‘Good Faith’
According to the actual wording of the Code, itself: “Good Faith means (i) a standard of conduct characterised by honesty, fair and open dealing, without duress and with due regard to the interests of the other party (which does not equate to not acting in or acting against one’s own legitimate interests)…”
If you’ve had the fortitude to read that far – that statement makes it clear that the CGCC is MEANT to be a toothless lion.
My take
I’ve suspected from the outset that the whole idea of the Code of Conduct was just an attempt to shroud the whole food price catastrophe in even more layers of smoke and mirrors…
~ Maggie J.