A shameful record

It’s hard to believe hunger has a place in Canada. This is a country that ranks11th out of186 countries on the UN Human Development Index, which measures standards of living.

That’s why the annual HungerCount report, which found that a record number of Canadians are using food banks, is so disturbing.

And it seems it’s only getting worse: The study from Food Banks Canada found that 841,000 people visited a food bank during March of this year, a 1-per-cent increase from the previous year. And that figure is up 25 per cent from 2008 when the most recent economic downturn hit. Nor are numbers slowing: 87,533 people turned to food banks in March for the first time this year.

While 37 per cent of those helped by food banks were children, this year’s report found food-bank clients are increasingly single (43 per cent of the total up from 29 per cent in 2001), and increasingly male. All of this is completely unnecessary in a country as wealthy as Canada.

As the report outlines in well-documented detail, there’s much Ottawa can immediately do to turn the tide on hunger.

Instead, the Harper government seems focused on providing tax benefits, such as income-splitting, to its well-off constituent base before next year’s election.

If it wasn’t so focused on vote-pandering, the government would carefully consider the HungerCount report’s recommendations before providing tax relief to those who are not among the neediest. Among the suggestions:

The high cost of housing is one of the key factors driving Canadians to food banks. The report recommends a federal fund that social housing providers can draw on for capital repairs, maintenance and retrofits.

The demand for rental housing is far outpacing supply and driving up rents that eat into income which could be used for food. Ottawa could use tax reforms to encourage the building of new rental housing units.

To reduce the need for food banks for the working poor, childcare subsidies, affordable housing supplements, and drug and dental insurance benefits should be removed from welfare and made available to all low-income Canadians.

To enable parents to enter and remain in the labour force Ottawa should invest in affordable child care.

The short story from this report on hunger is this: if there’s room in the Harper government’s budget to lose $27 billion in revenues for income-splitting and family tax cuts, there’s room for measures to make sure that everyone in this country is properly fed.

The study from Food Banks Canada found that 841,000 people visited a food bank during March of this year