Question Period Note: FOOD PRICES AND FOOD SECURITY

Q1 – How much will food prices increase due to the tariffs and what is the government doing to help Canadians through this? Q2 – Do Canadians need to be worried about food supply? Q3 – What action is the government taking to stop the persistent rise in grocery prices? Q4 – What is the government doing to support Canadians who are struggling with food affordability and turning to food banks?

R.1 - We recognize that U.S. tariffs have created a period of significant uncertainty. We are committed to supporting farmers, businesses and Canadians to weather these shocks and will continue to provide robust economic support programs.

Canada’s economy relies on exports, and we count on imports to provide us with food that cannot be produced here. Given this, tariffs may cause food prices to increase for a wide range of products, and impacts will differ from product to product. In addition to Canada’s robust economic support programs available to help businesses and workers adjust to these shocks, the Government is launching a more than $6 billion aid package for businesses impacted by the tariffs and relaxing some employment insurance rules to help workers. R.2 - While recent U.S. trade actions are designed to hurt all Canadian production, including food, with some of the most productive agricultural land and farmers in the world Canada will continue to be a net exporter. Certain food imports may be more expensive, but our trade network can grow to meet these challenges. Canadians can further support our agriculture and agri-food sectors by looking for "Made in Canada" or "Product of Canada" labels, as well as their province’s buy local promotion program. R.3 - Grocery price inflation slowed to 2.2% in 2024, down from the recent high of 9.8% in 2022. It is now within the target range, yet our government remains committed to ensuring a fair, transparent and competitive marketplace to make life more affordable for Canadians.
On December 15, 2023, Bill C-56, the Affordable Housing and Groceries Act, received Royal Assent. Amending the Competition Act, C-56 allowed the Competition Bureau to advance its investigations into large retailers’ use of anti-competitive restrictions, known as property controls, that impact competition in the retail sale of food products. On June 20, 2024, Bill C-59, the Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023, received Royal Assent. It modernizes all aspects of the law to facilitate enforcement and increase competition to make life more affordable for Canadians. R.4 - Most recently, the Government eliminated the consumer carbon tax, ensuring that Canadians can keep more of their hard-earned money.
The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring that every family across Canada, including in the North, has confidence that they have access to fresh, nutritious, and affordable food.
Also, the $1 billion National School Food Program, launched in the 2024 Budget, is expected to provide meals for up to 400,000 kids each year and save the average participating family with two children around $800 per year in grocery costs.
These actions build on previously introduced measures such as increases to the federal minimum wage, the Canada Child Benefit, Canada Workers Benefit, and Old Age Security. This is in addition to social programming that was previously announced, such as more affordable child-care and the development of a national dental care program.

Food Price Inflation
Consumer price inflation reflects the final price consumers pay, including discounts and taxes. According to the latest monthly Consumer Price Index data for April 2025, price increases for food purchased from stores (groceries) was 3.8%, above headline inflation (+1.7%). Restaurant price inflation was 3.6%, in line with levels seen before the GST/HST tax holiday.
Year-over-year inflation varied across categories, including dairy (+2.5%), eggs (+3.9%), bakery products (+0.2%), fresh fruit (+5.0%), and fresh vegetables (+3.7%). Price changes varied across meat products, with higher inflation for beef (+16.2%) compared to pork (+1.8%), processed meat (+2.3%) and chicken (+1.0%). Price increases for edible fats and oils have continued to decline (-5.7%) after their consistent double-digit inflation over the past three years.
Grocery price increases varied across the country. Across the provinces, prices grow the slowest on Prince Edward Island (+2.8%) and in Quebec (+3.3%). Prices rose the most in Saskatchewan (+5.2%). For the territorial capitals, prices grew faster in Whitehorse (+5.3%) than Yellowknife (+4.7%) and no data is available for Iqaluit.
As of March 2025 (latest comparable data), Canada’s grocery inflation was 3.2% in March 2025, in line with the G7 average (+3.1%). Grocery (food) inflation was lower in France (+0.7%), United States (+2.5%), Italy (+2.5%), and the United Kingdom (+3.0%). Over the same period, grocery inflation was higher in Germany (+3.4%) and Japan (+8.6%).
Food Price Dynamics and Monitoring
Agricultural commodity prices tend to fluctuate more than grocery prices, and they are not tightly correlated. Preliminary research by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) shows that receipts for Canadian farm products represent about a fifth of final food costs for Canadians. As of 2020, about 82 cents of every dollar Canadians spend on food went to post-farm gate sectors, like transportation and retail. The farm share is higher for less processed foods (e.g. eggs, fruits and vegetables), compared to more processed foods (e.g. bread and soup) .
Consistent with Canada’s World Trade Organization commitments, provincial and federal governments deliberately have minimal direct involvement in managing food prices or production decisions in Canada. Their influence is mainly through measures to ensure an efficient and fair market, and by measures to mitigate the impact on vulnerable Canadians.
AAFC conducts analysis on supply and demand factors that influence food costs and availability along the entire agri-food supply chain. Various datasets are used by AAFC to monitor shocks across the sector.
Food Price Data Hub
Statistics Canada, in collaboration with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, developed the Food Price Data Hub to provide timely access to the information Canadians need to better understand food price fluctuations. The Food Price Data Hub (the Hub) uses existing data from the Agency which has been consolidated into a new, all-in-one tool to make it easier for Canadians to get an overall snapshot of food prices and trends.

Platform Commitments on Food Security:
• Strengthen Canada’s food security by investing in greenhouses, hydroponics, and other controlled environment agriculture that allow us to grow more types of food, here at home. We will work with the private sector to protect Canadian food security.
• Work to increase the resilience of food supply chains and support innovation.
• Amend the mandates of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Pest Management Regulatory Agency to ensure they consider food security and the cost of food in all their regulatory decisions without compromising on health and safety. Currently, these important agencies only look at their respective mandates through a health and safety lens.
• Direct the Canada Infrastructure Bank to prioritize investments in agriculture, fisheries, agri-food, and the food supply chain, particularly those that improve food security and reduce the cost of food for Canadian families, unlocking potentially billions in investment for the sector.
• Help Canadian farmers get their goods to market at low cost, particularly in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. We will do this by extending the Extended Railway Interswitching pilot by three years. As part of our commitment to support Canadian workers, we will explore all options to exclude non-Canadian railways from being included in this project.
• Support modern water management practices and safeguard local water resources as part of the freshwater action plan.

Previous Actions Related to Grocery Affordability
Between 2023 and 2025, the following initiatives related to grocery affordability were undertaken:
• Temporary GST/HST break from December 14, 2024, to February 15, 2025, making virtually all food, as well as purchases at restaurants, tax-free.
• Addressing shrinkflation through the Office of Consumer Affairs, which launched research projects to investigate price inflation and harmful business practices.
• Amending the Competition Act to enhance competition, including in the grocery sector, by giving power to the Competition Bureau to crack down on unfair practices.
• Launching a National School Food Program, to provide meals for up to 400,000 kids each year and fund infrastructure to support school food programming.
• Investing further in the Food Policy for Canada to strengthen Canada’s food systems including $62.9 million over three years to renew and expand the Local Food Infrastructure Fund.

Food Insecurity in Canada
Food insecurity is the inability to acquire or consume an adequate diet quality or sufficient quantity of food or the uncertainty that one will be able to do so due to income. According to the 2023 Canadian Income Survey, 25.5% of people (10.0 million) reported living in food insecure households in 2023/24, up from 22.9% the previous year. Food Bank Canada’s HungerCount 2024, a point in time snapshot, reported over 2 million food bank visits in March 2024, up 6% from March 2023 and up 90% from March 2019. About 40% of food bank visits were by those receiving provincial social assistance as their main source of income, while employed clients accounted for a record high 18%.

Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food
• June 13, 2023: Tenth Report entitled Grocery Affordability: Examining Rising Food Costs in Canada, made 13 recommendations to address the impacts and drivers of food price inflation across the supply chain, including improving relations and competition across the food supply chain.
o October 5, 2023: the Government tabled its response

• May 23, 2024: Eighteenth Report entitled A Call to Action: How Government and Industry Can Fight Back Against Food Price Volatility, made 10 recommendations to address ongoing challenges in the Canadian food supply chain, including improving competition across the food supply chain and recommended actions to assist Canadians experiencing food insecurity.
o September 9, 2024: the Government tabled its response

· The Government of Canada understands that food prices remain a critical issue for Canadians and is committed to ensuring that every family across Canada has access to fresh, nutritious, and affordable food.

· The Government of Canada will support innovation and work to prioritize investments in agriculture, fisheries, agrifood, and the food supply chain. This includes greater investments in the food processing sector and in greenhouses, which will allow us to grow and process more food domestically.

· We have also committed to helping consumers more easily identify Canadian products when making purchases at the grocery store.

· These commitments build on previous actions that the Government has taken, including amendments to the Competition Act, to strengthen our food systems under the Food Policy for Canada, and continued work on the Food Price Data Hub.