NDP calling for probe of grocery store profits as food prices continue to rise | CBC News: While Loblaw and Metro have attributed their increased profits to a rise in pharmaceutical sales, MacGregor said it’s still worth looking into.

“I think Canadians deserve answers and … in this time where they see
the prices of everything going up, unfortunately they have a Liberal
government which has not paid much attention to the role that corporate
greed plays in the increasing prices they’re seeing,” MacGregor told
CBC.

Canada’s three major grocery chains all posted increased
profits in their most recent financial reports. Loblaw reported a
quarterly profit of $387 million — an increase of $12 million, or 3.2
per cent, over the same quarter last year.

Metro posted a $275
million quarterly profit, up from $252.4 million in the same quarter the
year before. And Empire reported a profit of $178.5 million in its
latest quarter, up $6.6 million in the same quarter in the previous
year.

Lights out, heaters off: Europeans prepare for winter energy crisis after Russia turns off gas | CBC News: As Europe heads into winter in the throes of an energy crisis,
offices are getting chillier. Statues and historic buildings are going
dark. Bakers who can’t afford to heat their ovens are talking about
giving up, while fruit and vegetable growers face letting greenhouses
stand idle.

In poorer eastern Europe, people are stocking up on
firewood, while in wealthier Germany, the wait for an energy-saving heat
pump can take half a year. And businesses don’t know how much more they
can cut back.

“We can’t turn off the lights and make our guests
sit in the dark,” said Richard Kovacs, business development manager for
Hungarian burger chain Zing Burger. The restaurants already run the
grills no more than necessary and use motion detectors to turn off
lights in storage, with some stores facing a 750 per cent increase in
electricity bills since the beginning of the year.