The federal Spring Economic Update 2026, released April 28, focuses on long-term growth and targeted affordability relief.
There are steps forward—on grocery affordability and access to disability benefits. But for the hundreds of thousands turning to food banks, the gap remains: incomes still aren’t keeping up with the cost of living—especially rent.
At Daily Bread Food Bank, where we served over 4.1 million visits in 2025, affordability isn’t abstract. It shows up in impossible trade-offs—between rent and food, medication and transit.
Needed food support
The reannouncement of the expanded Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit is one of the most significant—albeit temporary—measures in the update.
This is welcome and necessary. For many food bank clients, even modest income increases can mean fewer skipped meals. It recognizes that food insecurity is fundamentally an income problem—not a food supply issue. What is needed long-term is sustained investment in income security.
The update also includes $20 million in additional funding for food banks, plus investments in food production and northern food access. Finally, it reaffirms commitments to the newly permanent National School Food Program, which will help 400,000 children access healthy meals.
These are all important supports—but not substitutes for adequate incomes. Funding food banks and food programs helps in the short term; the solution is ensuring people don’t need them.
Disability supports: access is everything
The government also committed to making it easier to access the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) by streamlining the application process and expanding who can certify eligibility.
This is a necessary reform. For too long, the DTC has been hard to access—locking people out of critical supports. The DTC is a gateway to many disability benefits, including the Canada Disability Benefit.
At Daily Bread, 1 in 4 food bank clients live with a disability. Improving access to the DTC isn’t just administrative—it’s foundational to getting people the income supports they’re entitled to.
More is needed—but this is progress.
Housing: supply isn’t enough
The update emphasizes housing supply. That matters long-term—but without deeply affordable housing and immediate rent relief, many renters will stay priced out.
Over 90% of Toronto food bank clients are renters or experiencing homelessness. Their median rent is ~$1,300/month—against median income of $1,200/month. That’s over 200,000 people in Toronto alone who won’t see any relief from long-term housing supply measures.
Put simply: rent eats first. Without new direct rent relief measures or income-based housing supports for low-income renters, households will keep falling behind—no matter how many new homes are built.
Decent work must pay
The Spring Update includes a new program aimed at increasing employment among youth while addressing labour shortages in skilled trades by training up to 100,000 skilled trades workers and strengthening apprenticeship supports.
Good long-term investments—but almost 50% of Toronto’s food bank client households have employment and still can’t make ends meet. Moreover, the update did not announce any new changes to improve access to Employment Insurance (EI)—an outdated but key social safety net for workers. Only about one-third of unemployed Canadians receive EI benefits, highlighting a significant and persistent coverage gap.
In high-cost cities like Toronto, work alone is not enough to escape poverty.
Bottom line: growth won’t end poverty
Overall, the Update invests in long-term growth, offers targeted affordability measures, and begins removing barriers in disability supports. But it reinforces a central truth: economic growth alone will not reduce poverty.
To make life affordable, we need action across Daily Bread’s policy pillars:
What must come next
The Groceries and Essentials Benefit and DTC improvements are meaningful—but the scale of need and deepening affordability pressures demand deeper, faster action.
At Daily Bread, we’ll keep working with governments and partners to strengthen income supports—especially disability income supports—and advance solutions that keep people housed, including immediate rent relief.
No one should have to rely on a food bank to get by. In a country as wealthy as Canada, we can—and must—do better.
