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The fight is once again ramping up to change rules that have resulted in food deserts across Alberta, according to Edmonton city councillor Michael Janz.
Janz is expected to introduce a motion at city hall next week asking Mayor Andrew Knack to lobby Alberta’s government to follow Manitoba’s lead when it comes to addressing the issue.
In June, Manitoba’s government introduced legislation to prevent grocery stores from creating new restrictive covenants or exclusivity clauses aimed at stopping competitors from opening nearby.
“There’s hundreds of sites around Alberta that used to be grocery stores but were then blocked when the old grocery store had a merger or an acquisition or they moved out,” Janz said in an interview Thursday with CBC Edmonton’s Radio Active.
“It’s frankly anti-competitive, anti-Albertan and anti-Canadian to allow big companies to set the rules on where their competitors are allowed to set up shop.”
WATCH | Some pushing for Alberta to restrict grocery stores’ ability to enforce restrictive covenants:
Should Alberta eliminate grocery store property controls?
Food deserts have been a long-standing issue across Canada, but in Edmonton, a city councillor is pushing for change. As CBC’s Nicole Healey explains, support is growing for the Alberta government to follow Manitoba’s footsteps and eliminate restrictive covenants.
One of those food deserts has existed in Griesbach for 13 years after Sobeys implemented property controls on a site where it had proposed opening a store. Instead the company sold the land after it bought Canada Safeway.
The move has denied thousands of residents access not only to a grocery store in their immediate community, but also any shops that sell competing products such as a bakery or a butcher.
“We’re still feeling the effects and we can’t have similar types of stores because that was one of the restrictions of the sale of the land,” Carl Knowler, Greisbach’s community league president, said Friday.
“So even though Sobeys doesn’t own the land anymore, they still had the power to be able to put restrictions on it.”
Residents in the community of Highlands don’t have a local grocery store within walking distance either due to a restrictive covenant on the lot of a former Safeway.
“It would be a great idea for the province to do this — to increase competition, lower the cost of groceries, increase access,” said Noreen Willows, professor emerita of population and public health nutrition at the University of Alberta. “To me, it’s a no-brainer. Why not?”
She said a recent amendment to the Competition Act makes it easier for the Competition Bureau to challenge property controls.
In a statement, Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally said his government is “watching the changes in Manitoba closely to see if they result in the intended change.”