Tell Canada's Grocers: Put Canadian Food First
The Issue
Tell Canada's Grocers: Put Canadian Food First
Millions of Canadians are making a conscious effort to buy Canadian.
We're turning packages around. We're reading labels. We're looking for maple leaves. We're trying to figure out whether something was grown, made, processed, or merely packaged here.
We're doing it because we want more of our grocery dollars supporting Canadian farmers, ranchers, food processors, manufacturers, and workers.
But there's something we've been overlooking.
By the time we choose between a Canadian product and an imported one on the grocery shelf, somebody else has already made a much bigger purchasing decision.
Canada's largest grocery companies purchase billions of dollars' worth of food every year.
It's time to ask them to join us.
Canada Produces the Food
Canada is one of the world's great agricultural and food-producing countries.
We grow wheat and potatoes. We raise cattle and hogs. We manufacture bread, pasta, and prepared foods. We process dairy products, vegetables, meats, and countless other grocery products.
And we export enormous quantities of Canadian food around the world.
Yet we also import billions of dollars' worth of food that Canada produces itself.
Consider pork.
In 2025, Canada produced approximately 2.34 million tonnes of pork and exported about 1.46 million tonnes. At the same time, Canada imported approximately 225,000 tonnes, including about 183,000 tonnes from the United States.
Canada actually sold the United States substantially more pork than we bought from them.
Or consider potatoes.
In 2024-25, Canada exported roughly $3.4 billion in potato products to the United States, while importing approximately $462 million in American potato products.
Then there are baked goods. Canada is a major producer and exporter of bakery products, yet in 2024, we imported approximately $2.16 billion in baked goods from the United States.
None of this means international trade is bad.
It isn't.
Different products cross the border for perfectly legitimate reasons, including geography, price, seasonality, processing capacity, consumer preferences, and different cuts or varieties of food.
- We are not asking Canada to stop trading with the United States.
- We are not asking for tariffs.
- We are not asking for import bans.
- And we are not asking Canadian grocers to replace products that Canada cannot reasonably produce.
We're asking something much simpler.
Give Canadian Suppliers First Consideration
When a Canadian farmer, producer, or manufacturer can competitively supply a comparable product, give the Canadian supplier a meaningful opportunity to earn that business before sourcing the equivalent product internationally.
This isn't about shutting the world out.
It's about building Canada up.
More Canadian grocery purchasing can support Canadian farms, food-processing plants, transportation and warehousing businesses, manufacturers, workers, and communities.
It can also help Canada address another weakness: we don't always process enough of the food we produce here.
Canada's own National Food Security Strategy has identified domestic food-processing capacity as an economic and food-security priority. The federal government has set a goal to increase the proportion of processed food consumed in Canada that is domestically produced from roughly 70% to 80%.
Canadian consumers can help.
The government can help.
But Canada's largest grocery buyers can help too.
The Canadian First Grocery Commitment
We are asking the leaders of Loblaw Companies, Empire/Sobeys, Metro, Pattison Food Group, and Federated Co-operatives to voluntarily adopt a transparent Canadian First Grocery Commitment built around four principles:
1. Give Canadian Suppliers First Consideration
When a Canadian-grown, raised, processed, or manufactured product of comparable quality and competitive price is reasonably available, give qualified Canadian suppliers a meaningful opportunity to compete for the business.
2. Make Canadian Products Easy to Identify
Use clear, prominent, and accurate identification in stores and online so Canadians can quickly distinguish Canadian-grown, Canadian-made, and Canadian-processed products. Buying Canadian shouldn't require detective work.
3. Set Measurable Canadian-Sourcing Goals
Establish realistic targets for increasing Canadian sourcing in categories where Canada has sufficient competitive domestic production.
We aren't prescribing the percentages. Each company understands its supply chain better than we do.
We're asking them to set the targets and work toward them.
4. Tell Canadians How You're Doing
Publish meaningful annual information showing progress toward increased Canadian sourcing.
Turn “We support Canadian suppliers” into something Canadians can actually see and measure.
These Companies Are Already Part of the Solution
This petition is not intended to portray Canada's grocery companies as villains.
Quite the opposite.
Loblaw, Sobeys, Metro, Pattison Food Group, and Co-op already have Canadian and local sourcing initiatives in various forms. Some identify Canadian products in their stores. Some operate programs supporting smaller Canadian suppliers. Some already publicly emphasize Canadian purchasing.
We're asking them to take the next step.
Make Canadian sourcing a measurable commitment.
Make it transparent.
Make it easier for Canadians to participate.
And perhaps even compete with one another to become Canada's most Canadian grocery company.
We would be happy to celebrate the first company to accept the challenge.
Buy Canadian at Home. Sell Canadian to the World.
Canada should continue selling Canadian beef, pork, wheat, potatoes, processed foods, and other agricultural products to the United States and every other country willing to buy them.
This isn't economic isolation.
It's economic resilience.
We want Canadian producers to win more customers at home and abroad.
We want more of the food Canada grows to be processed here.
We want Canadian companies competing for Canadian grocery contracts.
And when a Canadian product can do the job competitively, we think it deserves first consideration on Canadian grocery shelves.
That's why we're asking:
Per Bank of Loblaw Companies- Pierre St-Laurent of Empire/Sobeys
- Eric La Flèche and incoming CEO Marc Giroux of Metro
- Jamie Nelson of Pattison Food Group
- Heather Ryan of Federated Co-operatives
To work toward a transparent Canadian First Grocery Commitment.
Millions of Canadians are already doing their part.
Now we're asking Canada's biggest grocery buyers to join us.
If you believe Canadian farmers, producers, processors, and manufacturers deserve first consideration when they can competitively supply Canadian grocery shelves, please sign this petition and share it with another Canadian.
Forty million Canadians shouldn't have to solve this one shopping cart at a time.
Canada's biggest grocery buyers can help solve it one purchasing decision at a time.
140
The Issue
Tell Canada's Grocers: Put Canadian Food First
Millions of Canadians are making a conscious effort to buy Canadian.
We're turning packages around. We're reading labels. We're looking for maple leaves. We're trying to figure out whether something was grown, made, processed, or merely packaged here.
We're doing it because we want more of our grocery dollars supporting Canadian farmers, ranchers, food processors, manufacturers, and workers.
But there's something we've been overlooking.
By the time we choose between a Canadian product and an imported one on the grocery shelf, somebody else has already made a much bigger purchasing decision.
Canada's largest grocery companies purchase billions of dollars' worth of food every year.
It's time to ask them to join us.
Canada Produces the Food
Canada is one of the world's great agricultural and food-producing countries.
We grow wheat and potatoes. We raise cattle and hogs. We manufacture bread, pasta, and prepared foods. We process dairy products, vegetables, meats, and countless other grocery products.
And we export enormous quantities of Canadian food around the world.
Yet we also import billions of dollars' worth of food that Canada produces itself.
Consider pork.
In 2025, Canada produced approximately 2.34 million tonnes of pork and exported about 1.46 million tonnes. At the same time, Canada imported approximately 225,000 tonnes, including about 183,000 tonnes from the United States.
Canada actually sold the United States substantially more pork than we bought from them.
Or consider potatoes.
In 2024-25, Canada exported roughly $3.4 billion in potato products to the United States, while importing approximately $462 million in American potato products.
Then there are baked goods. Canada is a major producer and exporter of bakery products, yet in 2024, we imported approximately $2.16 billion in baked goods from the United States.
None of this means international trade is bad.
It isn't.
Different products cross the border for perfectly legitimate reasons, including geography, price, seasonality, processing capacity, consumer preferences, and different cuts or varieties of food.
- We are not asking Canada to stop trading with the United States.
- We are not asking for tariffs.
- We are not asking for import bans.
- And we are not asking Canadian grocers to replace products that Canada cannot reasonably produce.
We're asking something much simpler.
Give Canadian Suppliers First Consideration
When a Canadian farmer, producer, or manufacturer can competitively supply a comparable product, give the Canadian supplier a meaningful opportunity to earn that business before sourcing the equivalent product internationally.
This isn't about shutting the world out.
It's about building Canada up.
More Canadian grocery purchasing can support Canadian farms, food-processing plants, transportation and warehousing businesses, manufacturers, workers, and communities.
It can also help Canada address another weakness: we don't always process enough of the food we produce here.
Canada's own National Food Security Strategy has identified domestic food-processing capacity as an economic and food-security priority. The federal government has set a goal to increase the proportion of processed food consumed in Canada that is domestically produced from roughly 70% to 80%.
Canadian consumers can help.
The government can help.
But Canada's largest grocery buyers can help too.
The Canadian First Grocery Commitment
We are asking the leaders of Loblaw Companies, Empire/Sobeys, Metro, Pattison Food Group, and Federated Co-operatives to voluntarily adopt a transparent Canadian First Grocery Commitment built around four principles:
1. Give Canadian Suppliers First Consideration
When a Canadian-grown, raised, processed, or manufactured product of comparable quality and competitive price is reasonably available, give qualified Canadian suppliers a meaningful opportunity to compete for the business.
2. Make Canadian Products Easy to Identify
Use clear, prominent, and accurate identification in stores and online so Canadians can quickly distinguish Canadian-grown, Canadian-made, and Canadian-processed products. Buying Canadian shouldn't require detective work.
3. Set Measurable Canadian-Sourcing Goals
Establish realistic targets for increasing Canadian sourcing in categories where Canada has sufficient competitive domestic production.
We aren't prescribing the percentages. Each company understands its supply chain better than we do.
We're asking them to set the targets and work toward them.
4. Tell Canadians How You're Doing
Publish meaningful annual information showing progress toward increased Canadian sourcing.
Turn “We support Canadian suppliers” into something Canadians can actually see and measure.
These Companies Are Already Part of the Solution
This petition is not intended to portray Canada's grocery companies as villains.
Quite the opposite.
Loblaw, Sobeys, Metro, Pattison Food Group, and Co-op already have Canadian and local sourcing initiatives in various forms. Some identify Canadian products in their stores. Some operate programs supporting smaller Canadian suppliers. Some already publicly emphasize Canadian purchasing.
We're asking them to take the next step.
Make Canadian sourcing a measurable commitment.
Make it transparent.
Make it easier for Canadians to participate.
And perhaps even compete with one another to become Canada's most Canadian grocery company.
We would be happy to celebrate the first company to accept the challenge.
Buy Canadian at Home. Sell Canadian to the World.
Canada should continue selling Canadian beef, pork, wheat, potatoes, processed foods, and other agricultural products to the United States and every other country willing to buy them.
This isn't economic isolation.
It's economic resilience.
We want Canadian producers to win more customers at home and abroad.
We want more of the food Canada grows to be processed here.
We want Canadian companies competing for Canadian grocery contracts.
And when a Canadian product can do the job competitively, we think it deserves first consideration on Canadian grocery shelves.
That's why we're asking:
Per Bank of Loblaw Companies- Pierre St-Laurent of Empire/Sobeys
- Eric La Flèche and incoming CEO Marc Giroux of Metro
- Jamie Nelson of Pattison Food Group
- Heather Ryan of Federated Co-operatives
To work toward a transparent Canadian First Grocery Commitment.
Millions of Canadians are already doing their part.
Now we're asking Canada's biggest grocery buyers to join us.
If you believe Canadian farmers, producers, processors, and manufacturers deserve first consideration when they can competitively supply Canadian grocery shelves, please sign this petition and share it with another Canadian.
Forty million Canadians shouldn't have to solve this one shopping cart at a time.
Canada's biggest grocery buyers can help solve it one purchasing decision at a time.
The Decision Makers
Petition Updates
Share this petition
Petition created on August 23, 2026