Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Here we are at this committee, which is the human resources committee. We really do deal with lots of compassionate types of issues at this committee. We've heard some pretty impactful testimony on how people are struggling. We know that recently there was the Food Banks Canada “2024 Hunger Report”, which stated that there was a historic number of visits in March 2024 alone, over two million—I think it was 2,059,636.
We know that life has become more expensive for Canadians after nine years of this government. Food Banks Canada released the data showing that a record number of Canadians are struggling just to keep their heads above water, and having to rely on food banks.
According to their HungerCount, food banks recorded these historic numbers, which is an increase of 6% from the previous year, and a shocking 90% increase from 2019. We know that over a quarter of those visits were made by children, which is really heartbreaking. As a result of these historic levels of demand placed on food banks, nearly 30% of food banks across the country—across their network—reported running out of food in the last 12 months.
I'm not sure if anyone has seen some of the headlines very recently, even over the last couple of weeks, about food banks really coming out and reporting on this. Many food banks are concerned with being able to fulfill their holiday commitments, their Christmas commitments. Another 56% reported giving out less food to avoid running out before they could serve anyone. In 2021, these numbers were 10% and 20% respectively. We can see the huge increase here.
Something that lots of people don't talk about with inflation—and we know that food inflation was higher than inflation itself, once we break it down—is that the numbers don't go back down. When you have food inflation that's over 8%, 9%, 11%, if inflation itself comes down below 2%, it's still at that higher amount, which is why people are having such a tough time. When inflation goes down, say, below 2%, that doesn't mean it goes down to what it was back in 2018. It's still at that higher amount, which is why we're seeing so many families really struggling.
We know that Food Banks Canada also reported that up to 25% of Canadians are living in a state of poverty, while 35% of Canadians feel worse off financially. Among those who reported experiencing a worsening financial situation compared to three months ago, 40% cited the rise in the cost of food as the primary reason, and 30% of Canadians are worried about not being able to feed themselves and their families.
We know that the carbon tax does add to the cost of food. We know that it adds to the cost of transportation.