Decades-old clause keeping grocers out of Halifax neighbourhood hurts community, say residents

A real estate clause that limits who can sell groceries on Gottingen Street in Halifax has also caused generational damage in the historically Black neighbourhood, says a community advocate who grew up in the area.

Grocery giant Sobeys occupied 2300 Gottingen St. in the late 1950s, operating until the mid-1980s, until it built a newer store 1.5 kilometres away on North Street, where it remains today.

It left behind a food desert in its wake — a term used when there are barriers to accessing affordable and nutritious food within one kilometre — as well as a restrictive covenant that limits how certain property lots in the city's North End can be used, even after changing ownership.

The covenant, and others like it across the country, has caught the eye of Canada's competition watchdog.

Rodney Small, who spent his youth in the Gottingen Street area and is now the executive director of One North End, a community economic development organization, said the negative effects of losing the neighbourhood's large grocer are still being felt decades later, especially in the Black community.

"When we talk about the processed foods and the foods that aren't so great for us, they were readily available through the corner stores, and then we had, you know, a lot of the restaurants there that were serving the greasy foods," said Small. "So these eating habits, they passed down from one generation to the other, so we watch what our parents eat and we pick up on that."

Had the covenants not been in place when Sobeys left the area, Small said he believes Gottingen could be a very different place, and perhaps would not have been gentrified.

Earlier this year, Canada's Competition Bureau launched investigations into the effect of restrictive real-estate provisions used by the parent companies of Sobeys and Loblaw that can dictate who is allowed to sell food in an area and where.

The independent bureau said in a statement last month it is trying to determine whether the companies "are imposing anti-competitive restrictions," though it had not yet found any evidence of wrongdoing. It declined an interview, citing the ongoing investigation.

Although Sobeys sold the Gottingen Street property, the covenants were still in place at 13 addresses as of 2019, including at 2274, 2278, 2290, 2272, 2300, 2302, 2306, 2220 Gottingen St., and 5501, 5511, 5515, 5519, 5523 Cunard St.

That means no stores that sell fresh or frozen meats, vegetables or dairy can be set up at those addresses unless the covenant is amended or removed.

"There isn't affordable, nutritious food in this neighbourhood. There's expensive pizza and exotic restaurants," said Anne McDonald, a longtime resident of the community.

"They're so costly that ordinary people, certainly not the ordinary residents of this place, can't afford them."

Shana Colley, another longtime area resident, shares McDonald's sentiment. She takes transit across the harbour to Dartmouth to buy healthy food she can afford.

"They should have a real grocery store here, like an affordable one," Colley said. "There's a lot of children [here] and we need groceries … we have to travel far to get them, like I am right now."

Sobeys did not return a request for comment.

A research project in 2019 revealed 55 grocery store covenants in Halifax. The project was done by Jenna Khoury-Hanna, an associate lawyer specializing in municipal law, land use and planning.

Khoury-Hanna, who works for Kinch Eddie Litigation Professional Corporation in Campbellford, Ont., said covenants vary in their scope, and can apply to more than just grocery stores. 

"Restrictive covenants can be registered on title and they continue to run on title unless the person who's benefiting and the person who's burdened both agree to remove it," she said.

In 2018, a three-storey, 103-unit apartment complex was built in the old Sobeys lot.

The covenant on the property was amended by Sobeys to allow small, higher-end food stores. The building now also houses Real Fake Meats and Springhouse Market.

Colley said she'd like to see a No Frills, a more affordable supermarket owned by Loblaw, on or around the property. But as it stands, the restrictive covenant would likely prevent this. 

Even if it were to be lifted, it doesn't quite solve the problem, said Jill Grant, a professor at Dalhousie University's School of Planning.

"I don't think those chains would go in. They want a cheap space that they can get out in the peripheries. They wouldn't see enough demand to build something," said Grant.

"It's really tough. This society has changed in ways that have made driving to buy affordable food almost mandatory."

Wendie Wilson, a community and cultural advocate with the African Nova Scotian and Black Food Sovereignty working group, said trying to fix this food desert and others like it has become her life's work.

Wilson said she'd like to open a food centre in the area, and her group is in talks with neighbourhood organizations.

"What we want to be able to do, as a group, is to make these foods available to people of African Nova Scotian descent and the broader Black community, either highly subsidized or free," said Wilson.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.