{"id":730822,"date":"2026-06-12T00:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T00:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/730822\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T00:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T00:08:09","slug":"ottawa-commits-to-spending-1-billion-over-next-decade-to-protect-food-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/730822\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa commits to spending $1-billion over next decade to protect food security"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A customer reaches for a product in the Chalo FreshCo grocery store in Brampton, Ont., on June 5.Carlos Osorio\/Reuters<\/p>\n

The federal government will spend $1-billion over the next 10 years to combat food inflation and shore up Canada\u2019s food supply, as part of a new National Food Security Strategy launched Thursday. But experts say there\u2019s little the government can do to lower grocery prices.<\/p>\n

The new strategy sets out a number of goals, including increasing competition in the food retail sector, reducing reliance on imported food and improving access to locally produced goods.<\/p>\n

The move is part of the Carney government\u2019s attempts to address Canadians\u2019 concerns over rising food prices \u2013 a global issue that has affected many other countries.<\/p>\n

According to a government paper on the new strategy, food inflation in Canada has been consistent with its peers in the G7 since January, 2020, at 31 per cent. It acknowledges that rising food costs are largely out of the government\u2019s control, indicating factors such as tariffs and climate change as the main drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government, really to a significant degree, has their hands tied,\u201d said Michael von Massow, an economist and professor in the department of food, agricultural and resource economics at the University of Guelph. He pointed to recent government initiatives such as the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit, which replaced the GST credit, that puts money directly into peoples\u2019 pockets, as one of the few tools the government has.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s food inflation numbers since 2020 are slightly lower than the U.S., which saw prices rise by 32 per cent over that period. The highest rate in the G7 was Britain, at 39 per cent. <\/p>\n

According to Statistics Canada, in April, year-over-year food inflation was 3.8 per cent.<\/p>\n

I challenged myself to eat whole foods for four weeks. Here\u2019s how it went<\/a><\/p>\n

The government\u2019s new strategy refers back to a 2023 Competition Bureau report that found Canada\u2019s grocery sector is lacking in competition, and seeks to address contributing factors.<\/p>\n

The plan includes a $1-billion \u201cfood-link fund\u201d to build new food terminals, such as the Ontario Food Terminal located in Toronto, and food hubs, a type of food terminal for locally produced goods that reduces transportation distance.<\/p>\n

The strategy paper says this will help reduce small and independent grocers\u2019 reliance on major retailers\u2019 distribution chains.<\/p>\n

Prof. von Massow said while the new money will increase competition, it won\u2019t lead to a reduction in grocery prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good thing. It improves market access for smaller producers. It improves the access to those products for smaller grocers. So it will give us more choice in those smaller grocers and maybe make them succeed a little more,\u201d he said. \u201cWill that bring prices down? Probably not. But it will provide better access to the Canadian grocery industry for Canadian producers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new money is good news for small and independent food retailers, especially those in rural areas, said Gary Sands, vice-president of government relations at the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe costs of getting good freight, trucking, transportation, even to the Maritimes, when you\u2019re involving shipping to Newfoundland, are significantly higher than they are for the rest of the country,\u201d Mr. Sands said.<\/p>\n

He said that the hub will shorten those distances, and will lead to reduced prices for rural communities.<\/p>\n

How to live for a week without ultraprocessed foods, according to our health reporter<\/a><\/p>\n

The strategy also calls for a reduction in the country\u2019s reliance on food imports, especially for produce. According to the government, Canada relies on imports for 72 per cent of its vegetables and 88 per cent of its fresh fruit.<\/p>\n

The plan promises money for greenhouses and farming automation, so that producers can grow goods year-round. However, it was unclear how much of that was newly announced money, and how much of it was funding that had previously been allocated. The government did not respond to a request for clarification prior to publication.<\/p>\n

\u201cImproved local production that is not as susceptible to weather patterns will not lower prices, but it will probably stabilize prices,\u201d Prof. von Massow said.<\/p>\n

The government says that Canada is lagging its peers in food processing capacity. This means that food grown in the country that could be processed here is instead exported to other countries to be processed, missing out on \u201cpotential economic gains.\u201d The plan includes commitments of up to $400-million in new funding to help small processors grow, and attract new ones to the country.<\/p>\n

The plan also promises to address surveillance-pricing practices by making changes to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, but it does not go into details.<\/p>\n

There is also a reference about allowing \u201cthe temporary use of certain pesticides under specific conditions,\u201d but what pesticides and what conditions were not specified. <\/p>\n

Independent grocers are optimistic, though, according to Mr. Sands, who said, \u201cThere\u2019s always more that could be done, but this is a big step in the direction that we think we need to be moving in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A customer reaches for a product in the Chalo FreshCo grocery store in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-730822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}