Mr. Speaker, Canadians are being crushed by the cost of food, and the solution from the Liberal government is more red tape, more bureaucracy and more empty promises.
Just months ago, the Prime Minister told Canadians that he should be judged by the cost of groceries. Well, the verdict is in. According to Statistics Canada, food inflation rose 6.2% year over year, with groceries up 5% and restaurant meals up 8.5%. Canada now has the highest food inflation in the G7, and it has increased more than double than that of the United States.
It is not a global problem. This is a made-in-Ottawa Liberal failure. Let me be even clearer: Bill C-226 would do nothing to lower food prices. Instead, it would add red tape and federal overreach at the worst possible time.
Bill C-226 would require the Minister of Industry to create a national framework on grocery price transparency and unit pricing. Canadians do not want their tax dollars going to a federal report to tell them that food costs too much. They already know that every time they swipe their credit card.
What Canadians need is relief from the taxes, deficits and regulatory costs that are driving up prices. The bill before us would not increase food supply or lower input costs, but in the same Liberal fashion, it would add another layer of bureaucracy.
In an email, a member of my community said that she finds herself disgusted and angry. Let us be clear: Food prices are out of control.
I want to speak directly about Windsor because this debate is not theoretical. One member of my community emailed my office stating, “I'm deeply concerned about the rising cost of groceries in our community. Even with careful budgeting and deal-hunting, families are struggling to keep essentials on the table.”
Another said, “During a recent shopping trip to pick up a few items for dinner, my wife and I were shocked by the total at the checkout. One example that stood out was a bag of just five potatoes, which cost us $8. With the added expenses of caring for a newborn, we've found ourselves relying more on lower-cost frozen meals just to make ends meet, often at the expense of healthier choices. Eating well should not be a luxury.”
Could members across the aisle please take a moment to think about those words and truly ask themselves if the government is doing enough? Eating should not be a luxury.
My community is a working-class, manufacturing-driven region. It is home to thousands of auto workers, parts suppliers, truck drivers and food processing workers, whose livelihoods depend on affordable energy, transportation and stable supply chains.
According to Stats Canada labour and income data, Windsor-Essex consistently has lower median household incomes than the Ontario average, which means food inflation hits families harder and faster. When Ottawa raises fuel costs, carbon taxes on industry, packaging compliance costs and transportation costs, those increases are magnified in regions such as Windsor, where families already spend a higher share of their incomes on necessities.
Let me be clear: The bill before us would only create a finger-pointing report, which is something the Liberals are good at doing. When grocery chains face higher compliance costs, they do not absorb them; they pass them on to Canadian families, Canadian seniors and Canadian students, all of us. Instead of taking responsibility for the cost of living crisis they created, the Liberals spend their time pointing fingers, blaming grocers, blaming global forces and blaming everyone except themselves. Canadians know better. Government policy drives prices up, and the government keeps driving them up.
Food insecurity is rising, and the bill would do nothing to solve this crisis. This is no longer just about prices. Canadians are struggling under the government. Canadians are having to choose if they should eat or heat their homes. Students are skipping meals and stretching canned food across multiple days, while parents are buying cheaper, unhealthy options because that is all they can afford.
According to Food Banks Canada, nearly 2.2 million Canadians visited a food bank in a single month last year, the highest number ever recorded. The Dalhousie University Agri-Food Analytics Lab estimates that it will now cost $17,600 to feed a family of four, and that is an increase of $1,000 in just one year. Nearly 30% of students report skipping meals because they cannot afford to eat. A quarter of Canadian households are now considered food insecure.
This is the result of the Liberal government's lost decade. Its empty promises, failed regulation and being so out of touch with Canadians have resulted in one of the costliest times to live in Canada.
In the face of this crisis, the Liberal government's response is a rebranded rebate, a one-time cheque. It is a blatant attempt at vote buying that the government is now calling the Canada groceries and essentials benefit. Let us be honest with Canadians: This is the same GST credit renamed and temporarily inflated ahead of an election. One thing the government will not tell Canadians is that the scheme will cost taxpayers $11.7 billion over six years.
Liberals love to point fingers when groceries get more expensive, but they refuse to look in the mirror. They cannot tax, regulate and spend their way into affordability. The government is forcing Canadians to pay the price for that denial. A family cannot budget around a one-time rebate, a senior cannot plan groceries around a temporary cheque and a student cannot rely on a rebranded, failed rebate instead of real affordability.
Bill C-226 argues that unit pricing frameworks would help consumers compare prices, but even the Competition Bureau, in its grocery sector studies, has made it clear that price transparency does not lower prices when competition is weak and costs are high. In fact mandatory labelling frameworks increase costs, especially for small grocers, independent retailers and rural and regional stores. These costs include shelf relabelling, signage redesign, staff training and compliance monitoring.
As we have already seen in Quebec, where detailed price display rules were introduced, governments were forced to delay implementation after retailers warned of confusion, cost and complexity. The lesson is obvious: Out-of-touch legislation does not cancel out bad economics.
Conservatives are not opposing transparency; we are opposing symbolic politics that raise costs while pretending to help. When confronted with this growing crisis, the Liberal government's answer has been to point to a temporary GST rebate increase and claim that help is on the way. However, as The Canadian SHIELD Institute has made clear, this approach is nothing more than a band-aid on a wound that the government keeps reopening.
A one-time rebate does nothing to stop grocery prices from rising in the first place. It does not lower the cost of food production, transportation or retail; reduce fuel costs; or fix broken supply chains. It certainly does not make food more affordable next week, next month or next year. In fact temporary rebates often have the opposite effect. When governments recklessly put cash into an economy without addressing supply issues, prices continue to rise. Families receive a short-term cheque, but they are left paying the higher grocery bills. The rebate fades, but the inflation does not. It gives the appearance of action without delivering real affordability.
I ask the members across the floor to be honest with Canadians. A rebate that lasts a few months cannot keep pace with the grocery prices that rise every single day. It cannot help a family planning a food budget over an entire year, and it certainly cannot help seniors, students or working parents who are already stretched to their breaking point. Every dollar the government spends comes out of the pockets of Canadians, and they are feeling this more and more every time they enter a grocery store.
Conservatives will provide for permanent affordability so hard work once again means a good life, a home Canadians can afford and healthy food on the table, not a fake process of clarifying grocery store prices.