Human Resources Committee on Oct. 27th, 2026

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you to all of the witnesses for their presence here.

I want to start my questions with Mr. McRoberts regarding food banks.

Thank you for being here and for the important work that you and everybody connected with Food Banks Canada does. I know you do great work in my constituency. There's been some visionary growth recently in terms of the activities of food banks in my riding that I'm very proud to see.

Would you say that we are in the midst of an affordability crisis right now in Canada?

[Nick McRoberts]

I would say that increased cost pressures across a number of areas are leading to more individuals having less income to spend.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Okay. I would describe that as an affordability crisis, but I won't press you on that point.

On the issue of who is accessing food banks, I think it's quite striking to underline the numbers around the proportion of people who are working and also need to use food banks. This strikes me as a relatively new problem in terms of magnitude and proportion.

You're nodding, so would you agree that it's a relatively new phenomenon?

[Nick McRoberts]

It has continued to increase.

Obviously, employed individuals have always accessed food banks, but it's the significant rise in numbers over, I would say, the last 10 years that is particularly concerning.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Yes. This seems like a distinct problem. Obviously, for folks who are unemployed, the priority is trying to help those folks access employment, but for those who are employed and still struggling, that strikes me as requiring a particular set of attention and interventions.

One thing we haven't talked about is the taxes that low-income folks pay. Of course, income supports are an important part of the discussion, but a lot of low-income folks do pay certain kinds of taxes. They pay payroll taxes. They're responsible for input taxes on the goods they buy.

I wonder if you have any reflections on a strategy that would, as a first step, have the government doing no harm—that is, charging less or nothing to folks in low-income situations.

[Nick McRoberts]

Our policy recommendations continue to focus on putting more money in individuals' pockets. Obviously, tax cuts play a role in that. It lets them keep more of their income. However, there's a balance here between cutting those taxes and making sure that there are supports available for individuals.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Just to be clear, I'm talking about low-income folks specifically in this case and the taxes that people in these situations of vulnerability are themselves paying.

I'm sorry. Go ahead.

[Nick McRoberts]

Of course. It's an important seesaw, right? We can't just cut taxes for low-income individuals and think that the problem is going to go away. They have to have those supports as well because of the situations that lead them to being in a low-income quintile.

For example, when we look at housing costs, we can look at cutting development taxes at municipal and provincial levels, but we also need to make sure that the federal government plays a role in spurring the development of those adequate homes to make sure that these supports are working for the largest number of people they can.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Housing affordability, the big increases in costs that people have seen in the last 10 years.... You're describing a phenomenon increasing in that period of time. I wonder if you could comment on policy around inflation, the fact that the cost of everything has gone up, especially the cost of food. What is the proposed policy response that you guys have on the inflation issues?

[Nick McRoberts]

On inflation, we look at things like the Canada workers benefit or the groceries and essentials benefit, making sure that those are both indexed to inflation and to meet the poverty line. Right now, they're not. They're inadequate.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Mr. Genuis.

Next is Mr. Saini for four minutes to conclude.

[Gurbux Saini, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses and for the great work they do.

Our government has two major programs. We have the groceries and essentials benefit, which gives Canadians about $1,800 to $1,900 per family, and then we have the program for school children, which also saves families $800. Sometimes I hear from my colleagues that they don't support those programs. What would be the impact if those two programs were eliminated? How would it affect our society?

[Nick McRoberts]

On the groceries and essentials benefit, any program that puts more money into individuals' pockets is helpful. We would not advocate for the removal of that program. Its removal would have an impact in taking money away from Canadians. We don't have data yet on the full impact of it on food bank usage, but we expect to.

On things like the school food program, again, I don't think we should ever be having a conversation about taking benefits away from children and the ability to feed children. Any continued investment in school food is a national imperative, in my mind.

[Gurbux Saini, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Carolyn, would you have a viewpoint on that?

[Carolyn Webb]

Yes, thank you.

I can primarily speak about the national school food program, but yes, taking funding away from the program would set us back to when we were saying that we were the only G7 country without a program. We know that these programs do equalize food for children and youth. They have health benefits, education benefits and benefits for communities and local economic development, so we would be significantly regressing, in many people's minds, as a nation.

[Gurbux Saini, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

In your testimony, you mentioned that the food program not only helps children with hunger, but also makes them better students. They are better prepared to deal with life. Could you elaborate on that point?

[Carolyn Webb]

Yes, absolutely. School food programs have been shown to support children's preferences for healthy eating. They would support the government's healthy eating strategy, moving towards more fruits and vegetables in a diet. Now, that is very dependent on income, in many situations, but at the same time, we've seen less bullying. We've heard of students being less involved in gangs, because gangs can often attract kids through food. We have heard very interesting statistics about teachers noticing behaviour in the classrooms really settling when they provide a snack. I've heard of providing students with food before standardized testing so that they can boost the scores.

There's a wide range of different impacts on, as I said, preferences for food. As well, schools can integrate food literacy, and those schools can engage their children in developing the school meals, being part of those cooking processes, growing food and building those skills that they will have with them for life.

[Gurbux Saini, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

I heard previously from both of you that we don't have a shortage of food, but there's lots of waste. What can we do as a federal government to reduce that, and how can we help Canadians?

I'll start with Mr. McRoberts and then to Ms. Webb.

[Nick McRoberts]

I think the biggest piece is continuing to push the national food security strategy, from our point of view, specifically the food-link fund, through both the terminals and the hub model to ensure that there's more investment in processing, cold storage and transportation capacity in this country. We're a large country. Our population is spread out geographically, so building the infrastructure to move that food at scale, at a lower cost, is critical to ensure that the cost of food comes down and that more food can get to more Canadians.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you.

Give a short answer, Ms. Webb.

[Carolyn Webb]

Thank you.

Yes, we would echo that, and the coalition is asking for increased investment in the school food infrastructure fund and the buy Canada fund. As well, it's the opportunity that schools present to support local infrastructure because they are everywhere. If we can invest in the school food program and the infrastructure, they entwine, and they can really support each other as well as our local producers.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you so much, Mr. Saini.

Thank you to the witnesses for taking the time to be here and providing answers to the members' questions.

Members, our next meeting will be on Thursday, when we'll continue on this subject.

Is it the will of the committee to adjourn?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

We are adjourned.