[Asha] This is your marketplace.
It's a pandemic price check.
The toilet paper rolls that we can get for like 8 bucks, I kid
you not, we were looking at prices that were upward of $32.
[Asha] Looking for sticker shock.
Who, what, and where?
Oh my gosh.
The Lysol boxes that we got for $6, we were getting them for 20
and that was the cheapest.
[Asha] You tell us you feel gouged by high prices.
We hear from you about Shoppers.
Sobeys. Canadian Tire.
Walmart. Oceans.
Amazon.
I think it's kind of ridiculous how far price gouging has
really gone actually. -It's stressing everybody out.
[Asha] The same products come up again and again.
I'm hoping someone does something to, you know,
take like a stand against it.
[Asha] Politicians make big promises.
Jason Kenney, Alberta's premier.
We're going to go after you and throw the book at you.
Lay down the law and protect consumers against price gouging.
[Asha] Premier John Horgan in BC too.
We've put in place restrictions on price gouging.
[Asha] Tough talk. But what about action?
Ontario premier, Doug Ford.
You're hiking the price five times, ten times what
it should be?
You're done, you're gone.
And if you're convicted, you could face a maximum fine of
$100,000 and a year in jail.
[Asha] We're putting their promises to the test.
First up, hand sanitizer.
We manufacture medical grade hand sanitizer.
[Asha] Paul Kowdrysh sells his products to labs and stores
across the country.
When COVID-19 started costs from raw materials to shipping
went up. So, prices did too.
[Asha] There was somewhat of a markup.
What was it?
You should be no more than 30--
-[Asha] 30% percent? --percent.
[Asha] But he tells us he's seen a lot higher than that, up to
400% in some cases.
We show him what we find.
[Asha] We're looking at a 236 ml bottle.
$8.75.
Very expensive.
[Asha] $18.99 for 70ml.
This is off of Walmart.
.ca? Really?
[Asha] That seems insane to me.
But how much of a price hike is really too much?
Seems like no one in Canada has made that clear.
What we consider to be price gouging is at least
a 20 percent increase from the original price.
[Asha] Grace Brombach studies pandemic prices for a public
interest group in Philadelphia.
I've seen price spikes as high as $500 for a
digital thermometer and I saw two rolls of toilet paper that
were priced for $290.
Was there any gold in that toilet paper?
I don't think so.
[Asha] Amazon US says third party sellers can list for as
much as they want.
But they say they will suspend accounts if they see
price gouging.
Back on our cross-country call-out.
We head to Vancouver.
My name is Junior Adusei.
[Asha] Junior now has to buy new essential supplies.
And he has fewer clients.
Our barber supply store sells us the mask for a dollar each.
So, for a pack of 50 masks, somewhere in the neighbourhood
of $55 for the masks.
[Asha] Experts tell us that's five times the pre-pandemic
price.
We make another pit stop in Vancouver.
I am both a tattoo artist and an illustrator.
I usually just go by saga.
In a day, sometimes, I can use 3, sometimes 6, full rolls of
paper towels.
Added up to two, 300 days a year, that's thousands of rolls
of paper towel. So, to me, something as simple
as paper towels doubling in price, which they did, can have
a massive impact on the bottom line.
[Asha] Back on our pandemic price check.
Another huge price hike.
Turns out, it's one of Paul's products.
But this is 1 litre, $34.99 on store shelves, your product.
Yup.
That's unacceptable.
I'm going to tell you, it's unacceptable.
[Asha] Is this something you're going to look into?
You betcha I'm going to look into it.
[Asha] Does it have to be this way?
Price gouging.
[Asha] South of the border, US attorney generals strike back.
There was a store that was selling toilet paper that
normally would go for about $2.50 for $10.
[Asha] They name them.
We officially conducted our first fine of $10,000 to a local
business that was price gouging.
[Asha] And shame them.
Both being charged with nine counts of misdemeanour
price gouging.
[Asha] In California, the minute an emergency is declared like
these pandemic, prices can't go up more than 10 per cent
or there are penalties.
But here at home, remember all that talk about cracking down?
There's still no law that limits how much prices can go up.
Yet from mid-March to June tens of thousands of
Canadians complained.
[Speaking French]
[Asha] Quebec's consumer protection wanted
a price gouging investigation.
The government said no.
Alberta and BC tell us it's really hard to define
price gouging.
And only one company in Calgary has been charged and fined
$1600.
But it's Ontario that has an aggressive plan to punish
bad actors.
We're coming after you.
We have drastically increased the penalties you will face for
this disgusting activity.
[Asha] The province even launches a hotline.
Help us find these people.
[Asha] In the first two months of the pandemic,
more than 25,000 complaints.
Law enforcement investigates.
But when we check, no charges or fines.
What do you make of that?
These cases of price gouging should not fall on the consumer
in the first place to take responsibility but the fact that
they are stepping up means that our legislators also need to
step up for us.
[Asha] If there's an emergency order, why isn't there
any enforcement?
In spite of all the tough talk and big promises,
the government doesn't want to talk about to us.
Instead they send a statement saying enforcement
is at police discretion.
And consumer protection will keep an eye on the situation.
As for the retailers....
Many tell us they're against price gouging.
Some blame product shortages and their suppliers for
the higher mark ups.
Others blame fluctuating exchange rates and
shipping costs.
Who's to blame here?
I don't think, in a time of need and a time of crisis, that you
need to make the same margin you've made in the past.
[Asha] And Paul, he stopped selling to the distributor that
he says over-priced his stuff.
Meanwhile, the message from Canadians is clear.
Maybe bring down the prices a little bit, 'cause even like,
even a single $2, $3 can help out someone.
Lower your prices.
Have a little compassion.