(LifeSiteNews) — More Canadians than ever are relying on food banks to feed their families, as usage has increased 90 percent from 2019.
According to an October report from Food Banks Canada, Canadians made 2,059,636 visits to a food bank in March alone, as overall visits have increased 6 percent from last year’s record-breaking numbers.
“Compared to before the pandemic, there has been a significant increase in two-parent households with children under 18 accessing food banks — from 18.8% in 2019 to nearly 23% in 2024,” reads the report.
“Two-parent families who access food banks are more likely to live in larger urban areas of 100,000 or more, which contributes to the higher usage rates in those areas,” it continued. “This trend is consistent with other research findings that show households with children have been especially hard hit by rapidly rising costs of living.”
Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre commented on the situation, saying, ” Food Banks Canada reports more than 2 MILLION food bank visits in ONE MONTH—after the carbon tax sent food prices up 36% faster than in the U.S. This is Canada after 9 years of NDP-Liberals.”
Food Banks Canada reports more than 2 MILLION food bank visits in ONE MONTH—after the carbon tax sent food prices up 36% faster than in the U.S.
This is Canada after 9 years of NDP-Liberals.
Sign here if they’re not worth the cost: https://t.co/oshR2VRiZT pic.twitter.com/FtrBCagqLE
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) October 29, 2024
According to the report, families are increasingly forced to rely on food banks, as one-third of the recipients were children, making 700,000 monthly visits this year.
Food Banks Canada attributed the rising reliance on food banks to “rapid inflation, housing costs and insufficient social supports.” According to the report, 18 percent of food bank recipients are gainfully employed while 70 percent are in the rental market.
Finding a solution
The report recommended “a groceries and essentials benefit,” by modifying the existing GST quarterly credit given to low-income Canadians.
However, it should be clear that giving struggling Canadians a tax benefit merely treats the symptom, not the problem itself. The disease is not rising food prices, it is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s radical policies that have created a failing economy fueled by inflationary government spending and a punitive carbon tax regime.
Taxing the “carbon” emitted in the production and transportation of Canadians’ food and then returning a fraction of the money not only drives Canadians into poverty, but makes them reliant on handouts.
The Trudeau government needs to reign in its reckless spending and reverse its radical tax policies, returning the economic power to citizens and away from bureaucrats.
Despite the clear need for this, Trudeau’s government appears bent on doing the opposite. As LifeSiteNews previously reported, a 2023 October Parliamentary Budget Officer report found that Trudeau’s carbon tax is costing Canadians hundreds of dollars annually as government rebates remain insufficient to compensate for the increased fuel prices, yet he remains committed to further increasing the tax.
Reports have revealed that a carbon tax of more than $350 per tonne is needed to reach Trudeau’s net-zero goals by 2050. Currently, Canadians living in provinces under the federal carbon pricing scheme pay $80 per tonne, a rate that will be raised to $170 per tonne by 2030.
Directly following a report that Canada’s poverty rate increased for the first time in years due to high inflation spurred by government spending, polls showed that nearly half of Canadians are only $200 from complete financial ruin, and yet the Trudeau government continues down its same path.
Unfortunately for Canadians, if the past nine years show us anything, it seems that regardless of how bleak the data, the Trudeau government has only its ideological agenda in mind.