{"id":15349,"date":"2025-12-06T07:15:44","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T10:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/12\/06\/kinew-suggests-real-competition-coming-to-manitoba-grocery-sector-as-deadline-passes\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T07:15:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T10:15:44","slug":"kinew-suggests-real-competition-coming-to-manitoba-grocery-sector-as-deadline-passes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/12\/06\/kinew-suggests-real-competition-coming-to-manitoba-grocery-sector-as-deadline-passes\/","title":{"rendered":"Kinew suggests \u2018real competition\u2019 coming to Manitoba grocery sector as deadline passes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kinew suggests \u2018real competition\u2019 coming to Manitoba grocery sector as deadline passes<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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ManitobaRemoving controls making it hard for new grocery stores to open will lower grocery bills for Manitobans, Premier Wab Kinew says.Ban on property controls barring stores from opening near other grocers won\u2019t impact affordability: economistArturo Chang \u00b7 CBC News \u00b7 Posted: Dec 05, 2025 8:44 PM EST | Last Updated: 4 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.A law given royal assent in the province this June bans new real estate deals signed by grocery stores and supermarkets that prevent similar stores from opening nearby. (Ground Picture\/Shutterstock)Six months after passing a law aimed at making it easier for new grocery stores to open, Manitoba\u2019s premier says lower grocery bills could be on the horizon.\u201dWe could be the first province in Canada that actually has real competition in the grocery sector and people don\u2019t even know,\u201d Premier Wab Kinew said Friday.A law given royal assent in the province this June bans new real estate deals signed by grocery stores and supermarkets that prevent similar stores from opening nearby.The targeted property controls \u2014 known as restrictive covenants and exclusivity clauses \u2014 are common across Canada and raise \u201cserious competition concerns\u201d by their nature, according to guidance from the Competition Bureau of Canada.Existing deals can continue if they were registered with the province within 180 days from the law\u2019s passing. The province said 46 were registered by Monday\u2019s deadline, while 20 others that could have been registered were abandoned by grocers.But the new law permits the province to challenge any of the registered deals and refer the matter for a hearing to the Municipal Board if they find the deal is against the public interest.WATCH | Manitoba to fight property controls preventing competition in grocery space:Manitoba ready to fight remaining rules banning grocery store competitionManitoba Premier Wab Kinew says he\u2019s instructed his public service delivery minister to challenge each of the restrictive covenants that prevent grocery stores from opening near an existing store. The province recently passed a law that allows existing property control rules to be referred to the municipal board if they\u2019re contrary to the public interest.Kinew said during question period Thursday the government intends to challenge all 46 of the remaining agreements.It \u201cmight be a couple years \u2026 [from] when the bill was passed to when these covenants get struck down,\u201d Kinew said Friday.\u201dBut at the end of the day, if we\u2019re changing the whole structure of the economy in Manitoba to benefit you, the average person out there, I think that\u2019s well, well worth it.\u201dBut one food economist isn\u2019t convinced the new law will make a substantive impact on affordability.Law \u2018good optics,\u2019 but won\u2019t lower prices: professorMike von Massow, professor at the University of Guelph\u2019s department of food, agricultural and resource economics, said big box stores generally avoid being close to one another, and that these types of property controls usually apply to a small area.\u201dRestrictive covenants aren\u2019t stopping big stores from going next to each other. [It\u2019s] the infrastructure, the building space that we have,\u201d he said.The professor said the law may allow independent grocers and other small-footprint retailers like Dollarama to set up shop in some areas, but that he doesn\u2019t expect any impact on food prices.The deals are \u201clargely about restricting those smaller competitors,\u201d von Massow said. \u201cAnd really only a small number of [them] will actually be price-competitive.\u201d The Competition Bureau\u2019s guidance said that property controls may actually increase competition in some circumstances, including by encouraging companies to enter a market.Food economist Mike von Massow said the new law won\u2019t have a significant impact on affordability. (Submitted by Mike von Massow)Von Massow said the deals may, for example, entice stores to comes to smaller communities where there are fewer people who can buy their goods, by assuring them they won\u2019t have to compete with a business setting up right next door.Even so, he said getting rid of property controls is \u201cgood optics\u201d for Manitoba\u2019s government. \u201cAffordability is a huge issue for all governments and everybody\u2019s looking for an easy answer to the reason food prices are going so high. And there isn\u2019t an easy answer,\u201d he said. \u201cI appreciate that they\u2019re trying to do things.\u2026 But frankly, there\u2019s not a lot they can do without sending food-insecure individuals direct cheques.\u201dKinew said the law may \u201cnot be a silver bullet\u201d but it\u2019s one more thing the government can do to push for affordability.With files from Ian Froese<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kinew suggests \u2018real competition\u2019 coming to Manitoba grocery sector as deadline passes ManitobaRemoving controls making it hard for new grocery stores to open will lower grocery bills for Manitobans, Premier Wab Kinew says.Ban on property controls barring stores from opening near other grocers won\u2019t impact affordability: economistArturo Chang \u00b7 CBC News \u00b7 Posted: Dec 05, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15350,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,127,1],"tags":[116,126],"class_list":["post-15349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indigenous","category-manitoba","category-uncategorized","tag-indigenous","tag-manitoba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}