Debt, Inflation, and the Cost of Eating in Canada
In my remarks on Bill C‑19, I focused on the real affordability challenges Canadians are facing, especially when it comes to feeding their families. This bill renames the old GST credit as the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit and provides a one‑time 50% boost this year. For a family of four, that means support rising from $1,100 to $1,890 this year — only to drop back down to $1,400 next year and beyond. To me, that makes little sense when food prices are still climbing.
Grocery inflation is running at 6.2% year over year — the highest in the G7 and more than double what Americans are facing. I believe the core driver of this is federal overspending and the rapidly growing national debt. Canada now holds about $1.3 trillion in federal debt, and nearly 40% of that is financed by foreign lenders. That means tens of billions of dollars in interest payments leave Canada every year — money that could be supporting Canadians instead.
This year alone, interest costs are projected at $55.6 billion, or roughly $2,500 per family. Over the next five years, interest payments could reach $330 billion. If the share held by foreign lenders stays the same, Canadians will send more than $130 billion out of the country just to service the debt. I argued that this makes life more expensive because overspending today reduces the value of Canadians’ dollars tomorrow.
The Government only added this measure after missing the warning signs. The affordability crisis didn’t suddenly appear after the budget. Canadians have been struggling with rising food prices for years, and food bank usage has doubled since 2019 to over 2.2 million visits a month. Temporary rebates can’t fix the underlying problem.
Beyond inflation itself, federal policies like the carbon tax, clean fuel regulations, and packaging requirements all raise costs throughout the food supply chain. These expenses get passed on to consumers. That’s why I believe food inflation in Canada isn’t just global trends — it’s the result of choices made by this government.
My message was simple: we need to get Canada’s fiscal house in order. We can’t keep borrowing money from foreign lenders so Canadians can afford to eat. We need a sustainable path, one that strengthens our economy rather than managing its decline.
Conservatives will cooperate to advance this legislation because low income people need all the help they can get, but it is not the solution to food price inflation that all 40 million Canadians need.
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