St. Mary's Supermarket to close
Sitansisk First Nation announces increasing costs, access to products and provincial government’s cancellation of tax agreement have led store to operate at projected loss
An independent grocery that marked a major economic initiative for an Indigenous community in Fredericton is closing.
Sitansisk (St. Mary’s) First Nation, through its St. Mary’s Retail Sales (SMRS) board of directors, announced online Wednesday that the St. Mary’s Supermarket is closing for good effective June 30.
It said the board voted on the closure at a meeting on Tuesday on the advice of its senior management team.
The store opened in April 2003 and stood out as a sign of the robust economic-development efforts of the Sitansisk First Nation.
Its retail division said in Wednesday’s release that the supermarket gave more than 100 career opportunities to members of the First Nation and residents of the greater Fredericton area.
“This decision was made as a last resort after countless efforts by SMRS to reduce losses,” the release said.
“Regrettably, there was no indication of costs being manageable long term … Using current projections, the store was expecting a deficit exceeding $1 million.”
It said employees have been notified, and they’ll be given the chance for apply for other jobs with St. Mary’s Retail Sales. Employees who don’t land another SMRS job will be laid off June 30 and will receive weekly severance pay.
The First Nation’s retail division said the closure falls at the feet of two parties: Canada’s grocery industry and the provincial government led by Premier Blaine Higgs.
Change needed in grocery industry
“The grocery market in Canada is currently experiencing record high prices for staple goods supplied to small grocers and other businesses which rely on fair access through supply networks,” the release said.
“There are only two major operators of grocery supply networks in New Brunswick, with both offering uncompetitive supply pricing to independent community grocers, which forced St. Mary’s Supermarket to make the impossible choice of charging more to shoppers or face losses.”
The supermarket tried to mitigate the increased costs by offering more local products and alternatives to brand-name staples, it said, but shoppers were still looking for the more familiar products.
SMRS said Ottawa and the province need to step in and address the situation.
“The board of directors calls on the provincial and federal governments to find legislative solutions to the uncompetitive business practices utilized by the largest players in the market, either through mandating a fair-market rate when selling to smaller vendors, or through a government program to ensure that all Canadian grocers have fair access to suppliers of staple goods,” it said.
Obstructionist move from province
Higgs’ decision to terminate the Tax Revenue Sharing Agreement (TRSA) with the province’s Indigenous communities three years ago was a contributing factor as well, the board said.
“The revenues generated from these agreements were directed at ensuring the longevity of the social ventures operated by SMRS and other many other indigenous-owned businesses,” the release said.
“With the province’s unilateral termination of these agreements in April of 2021 (extended to January 2023 following the provincial government’s defeat in court over the legality of its effort to withdraw in the first half of 2021), SMRS no longer has a means to bankroll such a robust social enterprise.”
Indigenous leaders informed the province from 2021 to 2023 that the detrimental effects of the agreement cancellation would affect such businesses, it said, but those concerns fell on deaf ears.
“SMRS will remain open to further discussion with the province, should it deem Indigenous peoples in the province as worthy of career opportunities, or if it begins to recognize the crucial role these types of small businesses play in the local economy,” the board said.
“The jobs lost as result of these modifications should be of more importance to the province, as they contributed to the physical, mental and economic health of the people which make it so great.”
In the meantime, it said, to ensure Sitansisk residents still have access to groceries within the community, it’s bolstering its offerings at another St. Mary’s retail outlet.
“In order to provide food security to our community and customers, St. Mary’s Retail Sales will be upgrading the Two Nations One Stop to offer a curated selection of fish, meat, produce and grocery items,” the release said.
Don MacPherson can be reached at ftonindependent@gmail.com.
What else can we lose to the government of Blaine Higgs? This news is maddening!!
Why, it’s going under, that is what happens in business sometimes.