Manitoba challenges 4 Sobeys property controls before board
manitoba is taking four Sobeys-owned property controls before the province’s municipal board after a law passed last year barred restrictive covenants that could block a grocery store from opening near an existing one. The government said Thursday that the case will test controls it says make it harder for competitors to enter the market.
Mintu Sandhu said, "Each and every one of these predatory property controls is against public interest," and added, "Because when we let a company like Sobeys block competition, it makes it easier for them to raise prices." The province says the board should rule within six to eight weeks.
Wab Kinew on Sobeys controls
Wab Kinew said all the big grocery chains dropped their property controls when the law passed except Sobeys. He said, "So that means that there’s no competitor allowed to set up shop even in the farmer’s fields or even across the streets, a long ways away from where this grocer is actually doing business," and added, "At the end of the day, if this wasn’t benefiting the company’s bottom line, they wouldn’t be doing it."
The province says Sobeys still has 43 property controls that existed before the legislative changes. One extends into a nearby farmer’s field, and another is set to remain in place for decades. Sandhu’s office also requested a meeting with executives at Sobeys’ parent company, Empire.
Competition Bureau 2023 study
The federal Competition Bureau raised the issue of restrictive covenants, and in 2023 it published a grocery market study that found property controls can limit competition from new grocers and deny consumers the benefits of competition. Last year, the bureau urged retailers and landlords to drop or change competitor property controls that were not justified.
Sobeys did not respond to a request for comment. Statistics Canada figures suggest Manitoba’s inflation rate rose to three per cent last month compared with the same period in 2025, leaving the province’s grocery dispute in a price-sensitive environment as the board weighs controls at four Sobeys-owned locations across Manitoba.
