Question Period Note: FEED ONTARIO’S HUNGER REPORT 2025

• This Government is committed to building a better future for all Canadians and taking real action to bring down costs and make life more affordable. We also recognize that food insecurity affects many Canadians.

• We have taken concrete actions to make life more affordable:
· Introduced legislation to reduce taxes for nearly 22 million Canadians, saving a two-income family up to $840 a year.
· Making the National School Food Program permanent to provide meals for up to 400,000 children.
· Launched Build Canada Homes to build affordable housing at scale, capitalizing with an initial $13 billion.
· Introduced Automatic Federal Benefit, starting for the 2026 tax year and estimated to reach up to 5.5 million low-income Canadians by the 2028 tax year, to ensure they receive the benefits and supports they are eligible for.
· Launched the Canada Disability Benefit, providing up to $2,400 per year to eligible recipients.

• These recent actions build on significant investments in social programs and income supports such as the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care system, and the Canada Child Benefit that help make life more affordable.

• Feed Ontario is an advocacy organization that represents more than 1,200 food banks and hunger-relief organizations in the province.

• The annual Hunger Report from Feed Ontario released December 1, 2025 reveals that food bank use in Ontario has reached an unprecedented level, with over 1 million people accessing food assistance more than 8.7 million times between April 2024 and March 2025.

• This marks the ninth consecutive year of growth and underscores a worsening affordability crisis driven by rising costs of housing, food, and essentials, while wages and social supports lag behind. The report notes that despite Ontario’s 2020–2025 Poverty Reduction Strategy, poverty rates have increased, homelessness has surged, and food bank reliance has doubled.

• Key facts from the report include:
o Record-high food bank use: Over 1,007,441 people accessed food banks 8,712,897 times in 2024–25 — an 87% increase in people and 165% increase in visits since 2019–20.
o Affordability crisis: Costs of essentials like rent and food have risen sharply, while income supports and wages have not kept pace. Minimum wage remains $2.30–$8.80 below a living wage in many communities.
o Demographic shifts:
 Children represent 29% of food bank users; 1 in 3 children in Ontario face food insecurity.
 Seniors’ food bank use doubled since 2019–20 (from 1.1% to 2.2% of Ontario’s senior population).
 Single person households represent 51% of food bank users; 4.6% increase since 2019-2020.
o Employment is not a safeguard: 23% of food bank visitors are employed, up from 10% five years ago, showing that work does not guarantee escape from poverty.
Tax Cuts
• In May 2025, the Government introduced legislation to reduce middle-class taxes, saving two-income families up to $840 a year. It is also proposing to cut the goods and services tax on homes at or under $1 million for first-time homebuyers, delivering savings of up to $50,000, and to lower the goods and services tax on homes between $1 million and $1.5 million.
National School Food Program
• Budget 2024 committed $1 billion over five years in federal funding to create a National School Food Program, to provide up to 400,000 more children healthy meals each year across Canada. For a participating family with two kids in school, this program can result in annual savings of $800 or more. Prime Minister Carney recently announced that the National School Food Program will be made permanent, with $216.6 million per year, starting in 2029-30. 
Build Canada Homes
• The launch of Build Canada Homes and its initial investments are part of the Canadian government’s broader effort to double the pace of housing construction over the next decade. Build Canada Homes has the potential to cut building timelines by up to 50%, reduce costs by as much as 20%, and lower emissions by approximately 20% during construction.  These efforts will ensure that communities across Canada, especially students, seniors, persons with disabilities and equity seeking groups, benefit from more affordable housing as soon as possible.

• Budget 2025 committed an initial investment of $13 billion over five years on a cash basis, starting in 2025-26, which includes among other commitments:
o Protecting existing affordable housing by launching the $1.5 billion Canada Rental Protection Fund under Build Canada Homes.
o Providing $1 billion to build transitional and supportive housing for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Canada Disability Benefit
• Budget 2024 committed a new Canada Disability Benefit with $6.1 billion over six years, and $1.4 billion ongoing, to supplement provincial and territorial benefits, increasing the financial well-being of over 600,000 working-age persons with disabilities. This proposed benefit would provide a maximum benefit of $2,400 per year for low-income, working-age persons with disabilities, and indexed to inflation.

• Budget 2025 reaffirms the government’s intention to lower barriers to access the Canada Disability Benefit by helping to offset the costs of applying for the Disability Tax Credit for Canada Disability Benefit recipients. To that end, Budget 2025 proposes funding of $115.7 million over four years, beginning in 2026-27, and $10.1 million per year ongoing, including administrative costs, for a one-time supplemental Canada Disability Benefit payment of $150 in respect of each Disability Tax Credit certification, or re-certification, giving rise to a Canada Disability Benefit entitlement.

None