Three of Ontario’s top four political parties have promised to take action to reduce food prices, but one expert says some of the main factors driving up costs are out of the province’s hands.
The issue of affordability has been the main topic of Ontarians during the election campaign, especially because more residents feel the pinch when buying groceries and commodities.
Statistics Canada reported earlier this month that overall food costs rose 8.8 per cent from a year ago, while Canadians paid 9.7 per cent more for food in stores in in April, the largest increase since September 1981.
The NDP, Liberals and Greens offer specific plans to tackle rising food prices, while conservative progressives say they will keep costs low and help residents save money through various measures such as reducing taxes on food. gasoline.
Liberal leader Steven Del Duca said he has seen first-hand how food prices have “risen”, making it “much harder” for Ontario households to budget and stay afloat. .
If elected, he said his party would eliminate the provincial share of the 8% harmonized sales tax on all prepared food for less than $ 20. The party has said it would fund the measure by introducing a 1 per cent surcharge on companies operating in Ontario with profits in excess of $ 1 billion a year and raising individual income taxes by more than $ 500,000.
Liberals, NDPs, Greens want to improve transparency
“So go to your grocery store on the way home, maybe grab a roast chicken or a salad, as many families often do, take it home for dinner. Whenever it’s less than $ 20, our plan it will save you. 8 percent, “Del Duca said Sunday during a campaign stop in Windsor, Ontario.
“The same in a bakery, the same in a coffee truck, the same in any particular place you can go, anywhere in that province.”
But Mike von Massow, an associate professor in the Department of Food Economics, Agriculture and Resources at the University of Guelph, said the plan would not provide “broad-based relief” as there is currently only a “small segment” of food products below $ 20. pay tribute to the province.
The Liberals are also proposing to legislate “fair and open negotiations” between retailers and food suppliers, which Del Duca said would lower prices in the long run.
Doug Ford, left, Andrea Horwath, center left, Steven Del Duca, center right, and Mike Schreiner. (Chris Young / Canadian Press, Michael Charles Cole / CBC, Evan Mitsui / CBC, Alex Lupul / CBC)
“We want to make sure that … our local food suppliers in Ontario can have a real opportunity not only to sell what they produce, but to do so fairly,” he added.
The NDP and the Greens have made similar promises to support the Food Code of Conduct to improve transparency in the industry.
“We need to make sure that when we have food retailers, especially big chains, they don’t collide to keep prices high, because it hurts consumers,” NPD leader Andrea Horwath said on Sunday. campaign stop in Essex. Ont.
Von Massow said this could be “a very good thing in terms of controlling the market power of some of these big grocery stores,” but it wouldn’t necessarily reduce grocery prices, as a similar code of conduct introduced in Australia did not have this effect.
“As always, the devil is in the details. It’s easy to say, ‘We’ll do it,’ but until we see exactly what they’re doing, it’s to be seen,” he said.
Horwath said the NDP would also create a provincial food strategy that would involve working with farmers to improve access to locally sourced food while supporting jobs in agriculture.
Root causes outside provincial control
Meanwhile, the Greens promise to provide initial funding and land for community-owned healthy food markets, community orchards and rooftop growing spaces, as well as a nutritious school canteen program for the public school system.
They also say they would invest in research and innovation that would improve the sustainability of how the province grows, produces and distributes food.
The cost-saving measures proposed by conservative progressives seeking re-election include a reduction in gasoline tax by 5.7 cents per liter, an extension of the CARE tax credit for low-income Ontarians, and the $ 10 daily childcare delivery for 2025.
Despite various campaign promises, von Massow said some of the root causes of rising food prices are beyond provincial control, citing extreme weather events and the war in Ukraine as examples.
He noted that Ukraine and Russia account for 30% of world wheat trade, and wheat prices have risen as trade volume has declined.
Von Massow noted that there has also been a “significant” drought in the western parts of North America, including the prairies. The result was a 30 per cent drop in cereal crops in western Canada last year, he said, adding that it also had an impact on the beef industry.
There are also disruptions in the supply chain due to the COVID-19 pandemic that have pushed up food prices, von Massow said.
“What we have now is a near-perfect storm of factors that are causing food prices to rise in general,” he said.
“If we can’t deal with the root causes, then we have to deal with the prices themselves and it will be very difficult without direct subsidies of certain commodities to get food prices down. And it would be very expensive to do.”