Campaigns address soaring food costs

Three of Ontario's four major political parties are promising to take steps to lower the price of food, but an expert says some of the main factors leading to rising costs are out of the province's hands.

Statistics Canada reported earlier this month that overall food costs rose 8.8 per cent compared with a year ago, while Canadians paid 9.7 per cent more for food at stores in April, the largest increase since September 1981.

The NDP, Liberals and Greens are all offering targeted plans for tackling rising food prices, while the Progressive Conservatives say they will keep costs down and help residents save money through different measures like lowering gas taxes.

Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca said if elected, his party would remove the eight per cent provincial portion of the harmonized sales tax on prepared food items under $20.

But Mike von Massow, an associate professor in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Guelph, said the plan wouldn't provide “broad based relief ” since only a “small segment” of food products under $20 are cur

WHAT WE NOW HAVE IS ALMOST A PERFECT STORM ... LEADING TO PRICE INCREASES.

rently taxed in the province.

The NDP and Greens have made similar pledges to back the Grocery Code of Conduct to improve transparency in the industry. Horwath said the NDP would also create a provincial food strategy that involves working with farmers to improve access to locally-sourced food while also supporting agriculture jobs.

The Greens are promising to provide startup funding and land for community-owned healthy food markets, community gardens and rooftop growing spaces, as well as a nutritious school lunch program for the public school system. They also say they would invest in research and innovation that improves the sustainability of how the province grows, produces and distributes food.

Cost-saving measures proposed by the Progressive Conservatives include lowering the gas tax by 5.7 cents per litre, expanding the CARE tax credit for low-income Ontarians and delivering $10 per day childcare by 2025.

Despite the campaign promises, von Massow said some of the root causes driving up food prices are out of provincial control, citing extreme weather events and the war in Ukraine as examples.

“What we now have is almost a perfect storm of factors that are leading to price increases for food items across the board,” he said.