Weekly "Focus" and Shop Canada

If you are like my household, we are starting to pay a lot more attention to where products are made and if possible, will support Canadian manufacturers. This week I learned about the difference between food products that are Made in Canada vs. Product of Canada. According to Canada’s Competition Bureau,

 

• Made in Canada – at least 51% of total direct cost of production being Canadian, including the last substantial transformation – e.g. frozen pizza made in Canada using imported ingredients
• Product of Canada – at least 98% of direct manufacturing costs in Canada, including the last substantial transformation – e.g. maple syrup from Quebec

 

To assist shoppers, Canada’s grocery retailers are now making it easier to identify products, with lots of Canadian flags evident in their physical stores or on their websites. Empire Company (Farm Boy, FreshCo, Longo’s, Safeway and Sobeys) is posting this identifier on their Voilà grocery delivery website to help shoppers:

 

	Price Return 2025	Dividend Yield
Empire Company* (EMP.A)	+3.3%	1.8%
Loblaw Companies* (L)	+1.4%	1.1%
Metro* (MRU)	+7.2%	1.5%

Source: FactSet, Values as of March 7, 2025

 

This week’s "Focus" from our economics team is attached.

 

Have a great weekend and don’t forget about Daylight Savings Time this Sunday morning,

 

Brad

Senior Portfolio Manager and Senior Investment Advisor