People line up at the cash registers at a Costco in Ottawa, amid growing concern about COVID-19, on March 13, 2020., all of Canada’s major grocers have now agreed to sign on to the new self-regulatory scheme for the first time.
This week, both Costco Canada and Walmart Canada agreed to participate in the new rules, following Loblaw Cos. Ltd., which in May also dropped its earlier opposition to the code. This means that all of the largest grocers, as well as a number of regional and local independent retailers across Canada, have now committed to participating, as have all “key suppliers, large and small,” that provide food to those stores’ shelves. That’s according to a report from The Office of the Grocery Sector Code of Conduct interim board of directors, which was provided to Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial agriculture ministers on Wednesday.
The new code is expected to be implemented by June of next year. Before that can happen, the board still needs to hire an adjudicator who would manage any disputes arising under the code, establish an office to oversee it, and educate people across the industry about the code’s requirements. “This has been a long process, but we are now able to move forward to implementation which we believe will strengthen the relationship between all stakeholders involved and continue to provide Canadians with a healthy and robust food supply chain,” the board wrote in its report.