Mr. Speaker, after 10 years of the Liberals, life in our country has become too hard. People tell me every day that the cost of food is hurting them the most. Moms and dads are cutting back. Seniors are skipping meals. Young people say they cannot get ahead, no matter how hard they work.
The Prime Minister once said that people should judge him by the cost at the grocery store. Let us do that today. A new food price report from Dalhousie University shows just how bad things are. It says that food prices will rise 4% to 6% next year, which is even worse than this year. A family of four will spend almost $18,000 on food in 2026, which is almost $1,000 more than this year. I will repeat that it will be $1,000 more just to feed a family.
Food prices have gone up 112% since 2015. In 2015, a family spent about $159 a week on food; now it is $338 a week. Families are paying more than double. It is because of these high prices that many Canadians cannot buy healthy food. They are forced to pick cheap food that fills the stomach but is not good for long-term health. This year, more than 2.2 million people went to food banks each month. These are numbers we have never seen before. Nearly 85% of Canadians say their food bills went up again in the past year. Everyone feels it; it does not matter where they live.
I want to share what I hear from people in my riding and across our province of Alberta. Every week, families tell me that they now shop in two or three different stores just to find the lowest price. Some parents say they no longer buy fresh fruits, because it has become too expensive. Others say they now buy less meat and try to stretch a meal as far as they can. These are honest, hard-working people. They are not looking for special treatment. They are simply looking for a fair chance to feed their families without going broke.
Small shops and local stores in Alberta are also struggling. They pay more for rent, fuel, power, deliveries and packaging. When they try to keep prices low, they lose money. When they raise prices, families blame them. These small shops are part of our community. They want to serve people, but this government makes it harder for them to survive.
We also hear from truck drivers who move food across western Canada. They say the rising fuel taxes make their work more expensive every month. When the cost of moving food goes up, the price at the store goes up; it is simple. However, instead of making life easier, the government turns around and adds even more taxes. This does not help farmers, this does not help truckers and it does not help families who are already stretched thin.
Canada should not be a place where people fear the grocery bill. We have the land, the farms, the workers and the resources to feed our whole country, yet families are paying more for food than ever before. This government has lost control of spending, lost control of taxes and lost control of the cost of living. Canadians deserve better.
In Calgary, food banks are seeing more people than ever before. Staff and volunteers tell me that many of the people coming in have jobs but still cannot afford food, because prices are so high. Seniors come in because their pensions no longer cover both food and rent. This is not a normal Calgary. Calgary is a strong, hard-working city, but the cost of living has pushed many families to the edge. When food banks are stretched this thin, it shows that government policies are not working. We need to bring food prices down so families can depend on stores, not on food banks.
Why is this happening? It is happening because the Prime Minister keeps spending more money than the country has. His $80-billion deficit pours fuel on the fire of inflation. Every dollar the government spends has to come from someone, and that someone is the Canadian people. People pay through higher prices on food, fuel and home heating.
The Prime Minister also keeps putting taxes on the things that make food. There are taxes on the farms, taxes on the trucks that bring food to the stores, taxes on the packaging, and taxes on the fuel that cooks, moves and stores food. When we tax the farmers, when we tax the truckers and when we tax the stores, who pays? The families standing at the checkouts pay.
Across Alberta, farmers tell me the same story. They work long days growing the food we all depend on, but rising costs are making their jobs harder every year. The taxes on fuel, taxes on barns and taxes on the tools they use all add up. When the cost for Alberta farmers goes up, the cost of food for every family in our province goes up too.
Alberta families are feeling the pressure as well. A simple trip to the store now costs far more than it did just a year ago. From meat to milk, bread and other fresh food, everything is higher. Some stores in our province have prices so steep that families leave with only half of what they planned to buy. When food prices rise this fast, people cut back on meals, skip healthy food or turn to food banks. This should not be happening in a province as strong and as resource-rich as Alberta.
We need a government that brings down food costs, supports our farmers and makes life affordable again. That is why Conservatives put forward a motion to cut the cost of food. We asked the House to scrap the Liberal carbon tax on farmers and on food, scrap the new food packaging tax, scrap the fuel standard that adds 17¢ a litre on gas, and stop the inflation that comes from massive deficits. This was a real plan to give people relief, but the Liberals voted against it. They voted against lower food prices. They voted against common sense.
Food is not a luxury. It is not a special good for the rich. It is the most basic thing a family needs, yet the government hikes taxes in the food supply chain, pushes up the cost of living, and then asks Canadians to be grateful for the small rebates that do not even cover a week of groceries. People do not want handouts. They want life to be affordable again.
Conservatives have a simple plan: scrap the hidden taxes on food and bring down prices for everyone. We will bring back common sense. We will bring back a balanced budget so inflation comes down. We will let farmers farm without punishing taxes. We will let truckers move food without extra costs. We will let farmers keep more of their own money.
When a country as rich as ours has millions of people using food banks, something is deeply wrong. When parents skip meals so their kids can eat, something is deeply wrong. When seniors cannot buy fresh food after a lifetime of work, something is deeply wrong. The Prime Minister said people should judge him by the prices at the grocery store. Canadians are doing that now, and they are—