Grocer summit to ‘take the heat off’ Ottawa, not tackle food inflation: experts

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has pitched imposing a windfall tax on large corporations to discourage companies that could be taking advantage of elevated inflation to price gouge consumers.

Both von Massow and Charlebois told Global News that if a windfall tax or other punitive measures were implemented, as Trudeau hinted, it likely wouldn’t have the effect of bringing down prices at the grocery store.

Charlebois said any additional tax burdens put on the grocers would instead likely be passed on to the consumers themselves, in effect backfiring on the federal government.

Trudeau’s tax threat could succeed as the “stick” to get the grocers in the room to talk about what’s possible to improve affordability in the sector, he added.

From a public relations perspective, Charlebois believes it would be wise for the grocers to show up in Ottawa.

“It would be ill-advised for CEOs to miss the meeting.” |Read more https://globalnews.ca/news/9964326/ottawa-grocery-ceos-summit-food-inflation/| globalnews.ca/news/9964326/ott…

#grocers #summit #inflation #fines #prices #gouging #profit #politics #cdnpoli

Danielle Smith has embraced the electric vehicle. No, not the EV you’re thinking of

Danielle Smith believes in a bright future for zero-emission vehicles, of the sort that virtually no one uses in Alberta today.

Remember in the middle of Alberta’s Hot Donair Summer, when the premier walked hand in hand with somebody in a buzzworthy government surplus costume through a food festival?

She proudly commuted to Taste of Edmonton in a hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle.

“They’re pretty zippy. They work pretty well,” Smith would say later.

Not only is she confident that Alberta will embrace the hydrogen car, she also told her Your Province, Your Premier call-in show audience that she wants the next vehicle she purchases to be one, too.

Sure, there are nearly 9,000 electric vehicles on Alberta roads, and hundreds of charging stations. Ahead of Ottawa’s 2035 ban on selling new petroleum-powered vehicles, Smith wants a different ride to net zero.

“I think our solution for zero-emission vehicles is hydrogen — and they’re already here,” she said on the radio.

Smith has embedded this enthusiasm into government action, mandating her Service Alberta minister to pursue a network of hydrogen fuelling stations across the province, up from the zero publicly available now. The province is commissioning an analysis into the potential conversion of all or part of the government’s 3,400-vehicle fleet to hydrogen — from sheriffs’ cruisers to Alberta Forestry and Parks ranger trucks.

Alberta might even try to woo Toyota or Hyundai “to come to our province to build a car manufacturing plant,” said Smith, premier of a province thousands of kilometres from anything even faintly resembling an auto industry. |Read more https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/hydrogen-fuel-cell-electric-vehicles-danielle-smith-zippy-1.6963522| www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary…

#hydrogen #cars #EVs #zero-emissions #politics #ucp #DanielleSmith #abpoli