National Food Security Strategy puts competition front and center

June 12 2026 [Ottawa, ON] – This week the federal government released its National Food Security Strategy, with the goal of building a stronger and more affordable Canadian food system. Core to the strategy are measures to support more competition in food distribution, processing, and production, as well as resources for the enforcement of Canada’s competition laws. Highlights of the strategy from a competition perspective include:

• $1 billion for a food infrastructure fund to help independent grocers get products on their shelves without going through their biggest competitors
• $130 million for the Competition Bureau and Competition Tribunal to investigate anti-competitive conduct in the food system
• $1 billion in funding for Farm Credit Canada to support more competition in food processing

“The pairing of investment in alternative market infrastructure and resources to protect fair competition are a powerful combination,” said Keldon Bester, executive director of CAMP.  “Today, too many independent entrepreneurs in the food system are dependent on their own competitors for the things that make their own businesses possible. Creating alternatives to these consolidated markets is key to unlocking competition in the grocery sector. We’ve been saying for years that the conversation about competition in grocery has to go deeper than the store shelves. We’re glad to see this strategy recognize that reality.”

There’s more work to be done the provincial and federal levels: banning property controls, reining in algorithmic pricing, and breaking open monopolies further up the supply chain. But the National Food Security Strategy has the structural causes of high grocery prices, not just the symptoms, in its sights.

Canada’s grocery market has been broken for a long time, but this is an important step towards fixing it.