On June 11, Minister Heath MacDonald and Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the federal government’s first National Food Security Strategy at the Ontario Food Terminal here in Etobicoke. Daily Bread Food Bank welcomes the federal government’s recognition of food insecurity as a critical public policy challenge. One in four Canadians are food insecure—nearly 10 million people. Immediate national action is needed, and a National Food Security Strategy recognizes the seriousness of this issue—but the Strategy focuses entirely on supply-side measures and does not address the root causes of hunger.
The Strategy aims to reduce food costs by increasing grocery store competition, processing and growing more food in Canada, and reducing regulatory barriers. Daily Bread welcomes all efforts to make food more accessible to Canadians, but our research consistently shows that food bank usage is driven primarily by inadequate incomes and unaffordable housing.
If Prime Minister Carney and Minister MacDonald had come just down the street to Daily Bread Food Bank, they would have seen the struggles that are driving people to use food banks. Hunger in Canada is not a food problem, but an income problem.
People visit food banks because after paying for rent and other essentials, there’s simply no money left for food. One in five Daily Bread clients spend their entire income on rent. Lower grocery prices in the medium-to long-term can help, but they will not on their own reverse the record levels of food bank use we’re seeing today.
This new Strategy does not include any targeted income support measures. The already-announced Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit is a step in the right direction, but it is temporary and too modest to meaningfully reduce food bank use. The Benefit is an enhancement to the GST/HST tax credit, but after its first year, individuals will see their tax credit rise by less than $12 per month compared to the previous credit.
Canada needs a sustainable and long-term solution that addresses the deep-rooted causes of food insecurity. This is why Daily Bread is advocating for measures such as a national tax credit for low-income renters, improvements to Employment Insurance, reforms to the Disability Tax Credit, and expanded automatic tax filing to ensure people receive the benefits they are eligible for.
We don’t want bigger food banks. We want fewer people needing them. Effective policy needs to integrate both supply-side measures and adequate income-based supports to help lift Canadians out of poverty. Food insecurity will only decline when Canadians are not forced to choose between paying rent and buying groceries.
