As a facilitator, Marc Valois has spent his career working quietly behind the scenes. But when he was tapped to help develop a code of conduct for Canada’s fractious grocery sector, he knew things might get challenging. In 2021, Valois, principal and senior consultant at Ottawa’s Intersol Group, was asked by the Office of the […]
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As a facilitator, Marc Valois has spent his career working quietly behind the scenes. But when he was tapped to help develop a code of conduct for Canada’s fractious grocery sector, he knew things might get challenging.
In 2021, Valois, principal and senior consultant at Ottawa’s Intersol Group, was asked by the Office of the Grocery Sector Code of Conduct to facilitate conversations between stakeholders to draft the code.
While the job sounded relatively simple, Valois knew it would be more complicated.
“The first challenge was that there are literally thousands of players in the (grocery) supply chain. There are five major grocers in Canada, but then there are a whole host of independent and smaller grocers and suppliers … So, how do you get all of those folks to somehow agree to something?”
With grocery prices rising since the pandemic and consumers making their views known, there was increased pressure on the grocery sector to address some of the deep-seated issues that had plagued the industry for years, such as a lack of trust between suppliers and retailers. There were many calls for a code of conduct to be developed, matching similar examples in the U.K. and Australia.
Against that backdrop, Valois said he was tasked to design and facilitate the process. His approach involved “representative deliberative dialogue,” or addressing the many by talking to the few. He and the team at Intersol rallied a group of about 25 executives from the retail, manufacturing and processing sectors who would communicate the wishes of the broader grocery sector.
“To recruit these representatives, we went to some of the major, well-known industry associations and asked them who would be good representatives for this kind of endeavour,” Valois told OBJ Tuesday, adding that he was looking for people who were leaders in their field, had a “solutions mindset,” the right knowledge and were empathetic.
Valois worked with this group of executives to develop about three-quarters of the code.
“We got to meet with them on a fairly regular basis. We broke things down into what the issues were that we needed to deal with, which eventually evolved into some key components of the code itself.”
With most of the code decided on, Valois said he and the committee needed to “get it over the finish line” by presenting it to other people linked to the major retailers and suppliers.
“At that point, we brought together a working group of eight industry representatives, people who are very knowledgeable of the day-to-day operations of the various organizations who could sit down and work out the details of the final clauses,” he said.
Valois said it was inevitable that the group would run into issues along the way.
“If things get heated and it appears as though people aren’t listening to each other, it’s my job to recognize when positions are coming forward instead of solutions. In other words, I’ll ask, ‘What’s the interest you’re trying to serve when you’re putting that position (forward)?’ … The other part of gaining success is to build the relationship among the players around the table.”
The process came to a head in 2023, when Valois convened a smaller “code design team” to make final decisions. Valois said it was key to make these stakeholders see eye-to-eye.
“I wanted to make sure that these people got past whatever barriers there might have been as quickly as possible so that we could have some constructive dialogue. We brought everyone together in Toronto. The night before (the meeting), we sat them down for dinner and structured it so they all shared who they were, what experiences they had had in the industry and what knowledge they were bringing to the table.”
It was that sort of groundwork that translated into a more effective and respectful conversation that led to the completion of the code.
“We had established some real relationships between these folks and a very high level of respect for each other. It didn’t matter whether you were from one of the major retailers or representing a fruit producer at the table, they all had oodles of knowledge.”
Although originally given a six-month timeline, the project was completed in 2024 and the new Canada Grocery Code of Conduct went into effect Jan. 1, 2026.
With the process behind him, Valois said he hopes to see more trust and transparency between retailers and suppliers in the sector.
“The first order of business is that everyone is now supposed to know who to contact,” Valois said of any potential disputes.
Valois said it’s difficult to know whether the code will ultimately help reduce grocery prices.
“One would hope that, over time, we can have greater certainty about pricing and being less concerned about things coming out of left field."
For Valois, he’s still happy to work behind the scenes. “Oftentimes, nobody knows who we are. If you’re a good facilitator, the focus is not on the facilitator at all, it’s on the work that’s done.”
