No problem.
I want to thank the committee for inviting me to your discussion on measures that can address inflation, particularly with regard to food affordability.
Members of the committee, it is a terrible time to be poor or living on a fixed income. That is the case for millions of Canadians who rely on social assistance, old age pensions or low-wage jobs that haven't seen a pay raise over the last year. That's particularly difficult if you are also living in a remote location or in an indigenous community, where three in 10 households struggle with the high cost of food.
Statistics Canada has told us that 16% of Canadian households—that's more than one in six—and six million Canadians were food-insecure last year. It's a lower number than the previous year because of emergency-related benefits from the federal government for the pandemic. This year, those sources of income have dried up, but food prices have started escalating and are now at rates of increase we haven't seen for 40 years. At last count, children and young adults—that's people under the age of 35—had the highest rate of extreme food insecurity. That means they were missing one or more meals on a regular basis because they couldn't afford to eat. More hungry people live on their own than with other people and more are renters than owners. All of these people have fewer resources to draw on to survive.
Meanwhile, demand for food banks has tripled on a monthly basis compared to last year in the GTA, the greater Toronto area. They are serving over 180,000 people every month. Keeping the shelves stocked for these food banks has increased sixfold over the last year, costing $13 million on an annual basis, right as gifts of money and food have dried up because of the price squeeze.
I don't know what keeps you up at night, but I lie awake at night thinking about how much worse it's going to get this fall. The Bank of Canada's rate hikes increase pressures to raise rents, and world developments—just mentioned—drive up the price of fuels and basic commodities needed. On the fuel front, heating, transportation and production are all affected. The escalation of food prices shows no signs of plateauing, particularly when it comes to food bank staples like pasta and bread, let alone fresh produce or meat.
It is clear to me that more people are going to have to opt for hunger to hang on to their housing because—let's be clear—there isn't any place cheaper to go to. More people are going to get sicker more quickly and turn to a health care system that itself is on life support these days.
What can you do? Given that the government coffers across Canada—provincially and federally—and around the world have swollen, in part due to inflation, some jurisdictions, like the United Kingdom abroad and Saskatchewan at home, have offered broad tax cuts. That approach, to paraphrase the International Monetary Fund and borrow words from the leader of the official opposition, Pierre Poilievre, pours fuel on the inflationary fire and actually generates more inequality.
Should we do nothing—because doing anything could be inflationary—that would simply be cruel and inhumane, particularly at a time when coffers are growing. This isn't about inflation. This is about survival for millions of Canadians. We can do much more than we are doing now.
Here are five short-term actions I would like you to consider.
The federal government could introduce a temporary food supplement tied to existing credits like the GST credit, the Canada child benefit or the Canada workers benefit. That infrastructure for advancing the money is in place.
All of these programs could be made more timely in their responsiveness by introducing quarterly indexing instead of annual indexing.
Please do not revert the EI system to the prepandemic model, which would affect the lowest-paid workers the hardest.
The one-time supplement to the housing benefit, which has just been recently offered, could be increased or renewed.
You could offer more support to the non-profit sector to underwrite the costs of food banks and permit community-based groups to help people navigate the system of supports. All of you around this table have financial advisers. People on low income rely on such organizations to literally save lives.
You can address affordability in the medium and long term through other measures that support incomes, services, supply chains and infrastructure. You could also create a consumer bureau that monitors pricing trends in key industries as vigorously as the Competition Bureau monitors the impact of mergers and acquisitions on market performance.
Those ideas can be discussed later, but for now I want to reinforce that you have plenty of room to act today, fiscally and morally, with immediate action.
I welcome your questions, and I thank you again for the opportunity to be part of your discussions.