QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
Cost of Food
October 24, 2024
Our questions are always legitimate, Senator Gold, and while you dismiss our questions as talking points on your government’s actions or lack thereof, I see Canadians turning to neighbourhood Facebook groups for advice on how to feed their families. They are looking for tips on how to stretch the little money they have left to feed their children.
Here is one post:
We are a family of six, one teen, and I can barely keep up. Just two meals worth of groceries plus fruit for snacks and bread for $100. How do you all manage your grocery budget? I am terrified . . .
A response to that post was, “. . . do what we do, eat a bit less . . . .”
Leader, how should this family manage their grocery expenses? Should they “eat a bit less”?
Senator Plett, the situation facing that family is tragic, and they are not the only family facing real challenges.
This country can do a better job in feeding its citizens. It can do a better job of not wasting food. Each of us as citizens can do a better job on our part. Thank goodness for the work of the provinces, the federal government, the municipalities, the private sector, churches, synagogues, mosques and good-hearted citizens who are doing their best to help their fellow citizens.
No matter how many times you say it and try to paint this government into a corner, the government is aware of and cares about the situation that Canadians are facing. It is doing its part responsibly to help address the situation.
They may be aware, but they do not care.
Last year, I asked you about people dumpster diving for food in Vancouver. Earlier this year, I asked you about a similar Facebook group with 8,000 members in Toronto. I have also asked you about 56,000 Canadians setting up GoFundMe accounts to raise money for food, Senator Gold.
Shameful.
Why do you think they’re doing that, leader? What advice do you have for these fellow Canadians? What advice will you give them, Senator Gold?
I’m not presumptuous enough to advise people how to manage the struggles they are facing. All I can do is again express the government’s commitment to doing its part to assist them and express my own personal commitment to continue to answer your questions as honestly and transparently as I can and to refuse to get drawn into partisan debates that seek to blame this government for every ill under the sun.
