NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called for a cap on basic food prices in supermarkets this summer, and on Tuesday he made the same demand in front of the independent grocery store in the upscale Yellowknife neighborhood.

He said the cap, which is intended to combat “corporate greed” among Canada’s major grocery chains, will restrict the prices of certain products at the Independent (part of the Loblaws chain) but also at North West Company stores, which include Northmart and Northern stores in remote communities.

“We need real help to ensure that people get the food they need at affordable prices,” Singh told a handful of reporters. “It won’t happen on its own. It needs clear laws and a clear vision.”

Before the press conference, Singh and NWT NDP candidate Kelvin Kotchilea bought some items at the Independent. A bag of President’s Choice apples cost $10, he said, as did a bag of seven peaches. A bottle of olive oil cost $20 (three dollars less than the price Singh paid at the same price check in Coquitlam, BC, last month).

Kotchilea said last year his family of four spent an average of about $200 on a week’s worth of groceries. Now they pay about $350.

“You either eat your food as medicine or your medicine as food. So it’s not fair to me, my children or my wife that we have to buy products that are not good for our consumption,” he said. “We absolutely have to call the big corporations to account for what they are doing to us as consumers.”

Singh also talked about reforming the Nutrition North subsidy program – another example of what he called corporate greed – and supporting traditional harvesters to improve rural food availability.

He is expected to be at the Yellowknife Farmers Market on Monday night, where he also performed in the summer of 2022. Singh and Kotchilea will meet with the Dene Nation on Wednesday and host a roundtable on health care before Singh attends a town hall meeting at Northern United Place at 6 p.m.