Restrictive Covenants and Grocery Competition in Canada – PIAC Report
PIAC’s Report calls for transparency and collaborative national action to combat anti-competitive property controls in the Canadian grocery sector.
Ottawa - May 20, 2026 - The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) today published its Report concerning Restrictive Covenants and Grocery Competition in Canada. The Report explored how restrictive covenants, a form of property control that limits how real estate can be used by competitors, impedes competition in the grocery sector and how can such negative implications be mitigated. PIAC also reviewed exclusivity clauses, another form of property control to understand how these different restrictions affect consumers’ access to food and grocery stores.
PIAC found that the legal nature of restrictive covenants, their scope, operation, and effects on competition in the grocery sector in Canada are not easily understood and widely known by consumers. PIAC also found that there is limited public understanding of exclusivity clauses. The data on how, and where restrictive covenants and exclusivity clauses apply in the grocery sector across Canada is not easily accessible. There is no comprehensive resource available nationally in Canada and/or provincially that provides a complete picture of these restrictions. PIAC also found that restrictive covenants can affect consumers’ consumption habits by potentially influencing their behaviours based on food options that are easily available and/or are affordable. This effect was found to disproportionately impact low-income and other vulnerable consumers, such as seniors in the affected communities.
“Restrictions that deny or limit consumers’ access to food, an essential means of sustenance, including healthy food options must be questioned, and challenged,” said Tahira Dawood, PIAC’s Acting General Counsel and co-author of this Report. “What makes matters worse is that the application of these restrictions in the grocery sector is for the most part concealed from the public view with the process to obtain relevant data not being easy and/or affordable,” she added.
The report presents several recommendations to address this problem at the federal, provincial and territorial levels, including a collaborative approach. “We hope to see provinces and territories work together to establish uniform standards that target anti-competitive property controls in the grocery sector,” said PIAC’s Public Interest Articling Fellow, Joshua Fichman-Goldberg at the time of writing this Report. “Manitoba’s recent legislation on this issue is a promising start to much needed provincial action.”
PIAC welcomes and supports the Competition Bureau’s ongoing efforts to review and eliminate anti-competitive property controls in the grocery sector, but asks for more transparency and public accountability to better understand and monitor this issue. This is particularly important because of the serious impact of these restrictions on consumers’ access to food. PIAC also notes that further research, particularly empirical research, is required to better inform the design of any necessary legal and regulatory responses to anti-competitive restrictions that limit competition in the grocery sector.
Some of PIAC’s main recommendations are:
- Comprehensive data regarding the application of restrictive covenants in the grocery sector in Canada should be collected and published. Data on exclusivity clauses should also be published.
- A national registry should be created on all property restrictions in the grocery sector that should be publicly searchable through an online database.
- A comprehensive national strategy should be developed to remove restrictive covenants that limit competition in the grocery sector.
- The legislative and enforcement approach being taken in Manitoba to address these anti-competitive property restrictions should be closely monitored.
- A nuanced legal and regulatory response should be considered to review the application of exclusivity clauses in the grocery sector.
- A mapping tool should be created to identify food deserts across Canada.
For more details, see the full report here: "Review of Restrictive Covenants and Grocery Competition in Canada”. The complete report is also available in French, and can be found here.
For more information, please contact:
Tahira Dawood
Acting General Counsel
Public Interest Advocacy Centre
1-877-613-PIAC (7422) - tdawood@piac.ca
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