QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
Cost of Food
December 4, 2025
Government leader, Feed Ontario’s 2025 Hunger Report shows that one in three food bank users in Ontario are children under the age of 18 and that one in three children are food-insecure despite existing federal programs such as the Canada Child Benefit. Children also still represent 29% of all people relying on food banks.
Given these numbers, how does your government justify its current approach to child poverty? What specific measurable changes will your government make to ensure that fewer children need food banks next year?
The government is relentlessly focused on bringing down costs and creating new opportunities for Canadians. Food inflation is tied to global supply chains, climate-driven shocks and currency pressure.
Budget 2025 invests directly in Canadian food resilience, more processing capacity here at home, stronger supply chains and supports for producers facing volatile input costs.
The government is making the National School Food Program permanent because the most direct aid to ease pressure on families is to lower the costs they face every single week. Up to 400,000 kids getting healthy, reliable meals means parents have real, measurable relief. Budget 2025 answered that question.
Senator Moreau, more than 1 million Ontarians relied on food banks last year, registering a record high of 8.7 million visits. A growing share of food bank users are employed — a clear sign that having a job is increasingly insufficient to avoid food insecurity.
What systemic failures does your government recognize in the federal social safety net, and why have these weaknesses been allowed to widen to the point where employment no longer shields Canadians from hunger?
This is an important question. Again, Budget 2025 builds on actions Canada’s new government has already taken to make life more affordable while protecting the vital programs that millions of Canadians rely on, from child care to dental care, to Pharmacare. Unfortunately, the Conservatives in the other place voted against the budget.
