Manitoba Adding New Costs to Provincial Grocers  

With no changes coming out of the NDP dominated committee, Manitoba Bill 31, The Property Controls for Grocery stores and Supermarket Act is preparing to receive its third and final reading before passing a law that will void agreements that include restrictive covenants and exclusivity clauses that have historically protected grocery stores from new types of competition, in particular during the early stages of higher risk major capital investments.  While grocers have the ability to reregister existing agreements with or without this clause within 180 days of the act coming into force, practically this means that any agreements with restrictive covenants will now be void, and necessitate grocers to go through a costly process with property owners to reregister even basic unrelated clauses, such as first right of refusal for a renewal, or property purchase.  In recent months the Manitoba government has added new taxes and several new requirements for grocery stores, that have escalated operating costs in Manitoba.