Madam Speaker, at some point, the government has to give. Canadians simply cannot continue at this pace. The Prime Minister himself said Canadians should judge him by the cost of groceries. By that standard, he is already failing. Food prices are up 40% since the Liberals took power, and food inflation is now 70% above the Bank of Canada's targets.
Thinking about the debate today, and what I have heard from both sides, at the outset of my speech I want to recognize a lot of the people who work at food banks, in social services, the volunteers at churches and gurdwaras in my riding, who do so much to make up for our poor economy. They do so much selfless service to help new immigrant families, struggling single mothers, and children who need support above and beyond what their parents can give them, in many cases through no fault of their own.
Despite our partisanship here, I do not think we should lose sight of the key fact that something has to change. The government has to do something different because the statistics that I am going to share, that many other people have shared, are moving in the wrong direction right now. Across Canada, families are being crushed by the cost of living crisis. Families are spending $800 more on groceries in 2025 than they were in 2024. That is like, for many, an entire month of the Canada child benefit that they had the previous year that is now just being used for groceries.
It is a real hit to the pocketbooks of so many people. That is why Canadians are turning to food banks in record numbers. There are over two million visits every single month, up 90% across Canada since 2019 and up 81% in British Columbia on average since that time. Daily Bread projects four million visits in 2025, and 25% of Canadian households are food insecure. That is up from 18% in 2023.
The federal election was not too long ago, and we all had those experiences on the doorstep when we met with struggling parents and struggling families who are simply doing everything they can to get by, but things do not seem to be working in their favour. That is, in fact, why the hon. leader of the official opposition wanted us to talk about food today, because it is out of reach for more people than it should be.
In my own riding, the situation is overwhelming. Abbotsford's Archway food bank serves 6,000 clients a month, nearly double from three years ago. In Mission, a survey found 26% of households rely on assistance monthly or for most months. At St. Joseph's Food Bank in Mission, volunteers are stretched thin as new needs grow every single week.
I will say that I am part of St. Joseph's church, where the food bank is, and the lines are horrible. We see the lineups on the days they allot food, and it is sad to see. It is really sad to see in a country as rich and prosperous as Canada that my church, the gurdwaras and many other churches in Mission—Matsqui—Abbotsford have to do so much when people were able to take care of themselves before, no matter their background, where they came from or how long they had been in Canada; it was just easier. To the government members on the opposite bench, please recognize that. It was not like this before, and it does not have to be like this again.
The government must make those hard choices to lower taxes and make a measurable difference in the lives of Canadians. We want to support policies that will reduce the overall tax burden to give more purchasing power to Canadian families. Those members heard the same stories I heard on the doorstep.
The budget is upcoming. We need to be very careful with this budget. Yes, we are facing international pressures, but we all need to eat and to be able to afford a nutritious meal, and our children deserve those nutritious meals. The budget needs to reflect that in the coming weeks.
We did not speak enough about farmers today. When we talk about food taxation, it can come in many different forms, from all levels of government. I live in British Columbia, and we have the Agricultural Land Reserve. It is something I support a lot. It was put in place over 50 years ago to ensure that our key agricultural lands are protected for food production. However, when we take municipal government, the Provincial Agricultural Land Commission, different federal regulations on emissions, such as those on the natural gas that heats our greenhouses, and provincial rules as well, it is very hard to build the facilities we need to increase food production.
I went to Windset Farms in Delta, a company that started in Abbotsford. I spoke to the president of Windset Farms, one of the largest conglomerate marketers of hothouse tomatoes in British Columbia, and he said that it took almost a decade to get a new facility expanded. This facility is creating a world-class suite of tomatoes and other vegetable products, which fly off the shelves in our grocery stores and that Canadians all across western Canada rely on, yet the government allowed almost a decade for a facility to be expanded, simply through red tape and various administrative and taxation burdens at all levels of government. If we want to build a stronger, more resilient and autonomous Canada, it needs to start with giving people the ability to buy Canadian goods. Right now, we do not do a good enough job of that.
Just last week, Bimbo Canada, Canadian food grains, is a Mexican company that is one of the largest bakers of bread in Canada. It has a great socially responsible story to tell. One of the great stories of Canada's free trade agreement with Mexico is seeing Bimbo's presence in Canada and it making investments. A representative talked to me about the plastics registry and the undue burden that the plastics registry has put on businesses like theirs. What does that lead to? It leads to more administrative costs. That leads to higher overall costs for Canada. If the company did not have the economies of scale that it does, it would be hard to even make further investments in Canada. Today, I met with another representative of a company that is not in the food industry but who talked about how burdensome the plastics registration policies of the government are.
In conclusion, Conservatives believe it does not have to be this way. The motion before us calls upon the government to remove some of the biggest barriers to more affordability and more ability for Canadians to take care of themselves and live their very best lives. We need to continue speaking about the cost of food in this chamber and we need to, in good faith, put forward policies that would give Canadians the ability to take care of themselves once again. The school food program will not do that. No government program will do that. It has to be done by broad economic policies that impact everyone equally, and that involves reducing the overall tax burden, the regulatory burden and the infrastructure burden to build the facilities and farm the land that we need to make sure that we can live our very best lives.