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Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a suite of affordability measures on Monday that he says will help Canadian families struggling to cope with the rising cost of living.

The flagship measure in Monday’s announcement is the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit, which Carney said will boost what families and individuals receive through their GST rebate over the next five years. 

“Canada’s new government is acting today to provide a boost to those Canadian families who most need one, while creating a bridge to longer-term food security and affordability,” Carney said in Nepean, Ont., on Monday. 

The prime minister said that his government is using the GST rebate designed for Canadians with low and modest incomes, because groceries and other essentials make up a larger share of their family budgets. 

In its first year, the benefit will give low- and modest-income Canadians eligible for the GST rebate a one-time boost that raises the $1,100 a family of four receives annually to $1,890 and increases the $540 an individual gets to $950. 

Starting next year, and running for the next four years, the GST rebate is being increased by 25 per cent, which means a family of four will get up to $1,400 annually, while an individual will get about $700 a year. 

“The rise in food prices means that a lot of those Canadians need more support right now,” Carney said. 

Tackling food inflation

To help bring down the cost of groceries, which have been rising faster than inflation, Carney said he will direct $500 million from the government’s Strategic Response Fund to help food suppliers “expand capacity and increase productivity.”

It means food businesses looking to make capital investments to help strengthen their supply chains can apply to have some of those costs covered by the fund.  

Carney announced a $150-million Food Security Fund that will help small- and medium-sized businesses to expand greenhouses and abattoirs, and strengthen food supply chains.

One immediate measure to help producers is a change that allows companies to fully write off greenhouses acquired on or after Nov. 4, 2025, that start being used before 2030.

“This measure supports increased domestic supply and investment in food production over the medium term,” a government statement said.

The prime minister also announced his government will direct $20 million in funding to the Local Food Infrastructure Fund to ease the pressure on food banks.  

“This will help boost community food programs, helping them to deliver more nutritious food for families in need,” he said. 

In addition to these measures, Carney said his government is developing a National Food Security Strategy to strengthen food production and improve access to affordable, healthy food. 

“This strategy will include measures to implement unit price labelling so Canada can compare easily in this era of ‘shrinkflation,’ as well as support for the work of the Competition Bureau in monitoring and enforcing competition in our market,” he said. 

The strategy will also include measures to help reduce food insecurity in Canada’s North.

Scheer lays out conditions to support GST rebate

Opposition House leader Andrew Scheer called the GST rebate a “recycled Trudeau-era policy” that will not permanently reduce the cost of groceries in Canada. Trudeau doubled the GST rebate for six months in 2022 to help with affordability. 

“It will not permanently provide relief,” Scheer said Monday. “It is a temporary measure, I believe it won’t even cover one trip to the grocery store for an average working family.”

Despite criticizing the announcement, Scheer said “Conservatives will always support measures that provide relief, even if it is temporary.” He also renewed his party’s call to curtail spending and work to bring the budget back to balance.

For Conservatives to work with the Liberals to pass a bill that would allow the government to implement the GST boost, Scheer said, that legislation cannot be part of a larger bill that contains other elements the Conservatives do not support.

“If they bring forward a simple bill that just does exactly what they said today, Conservatives will never stand in the way of relief for Canadians,” he said.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre later confirmed that promise, telling the House of Commons during question period on Monday that his party will let the GST top-up pass Parliament.