OTTAWA, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) — Groceries in Canada have become so expensive that Canada’s poverty rate is expected to rise this spring. 

According to a Department of Social Development briefing note published January 11 by Blacklock’s Reporter, the poverty rate in Canada is expected to rise this spring thanks to a 14 percent increase in food prices across the country this year.   

 “The rising cost of food will be reflected in Canada’s poverty rates,” the note said. “As food prices increase poverty thresholds are likely to follow.” 

“This could impact poverty rates in Canada in the coming years,” it warned. “The impact of high inflation will be reflected in poverty statistics for 2022 expected to be released in the spring of 2024.” 

While Canada’s tax-free Canada Child Benefit to help struggling families served to lower national poverty rates from 14.5 percent in 2016 to as low as 6.5 percent in 2020, the rising food prices are driving the poverty rate back up to 7.4 percent in 2021.  

According to the briefing note, an estimated 13 percent of Canadians have “food insecurity” compared to 11 percent in 2020.  

“Marginal food insecurity captures worry about running out of food or limited food selection due to a lack of money,” said the note. “Moderate insecurity captures compromises in the quality or quantity of food due to lack of money; severe food insecurity captures missed meals, reduced food intake and at the most extreme going days without food.” 

In a recent report, Statistics Canada revealed that year over year Canadians were paying more for basic groceries. According to their data, prices had increased:  

• 6 percent more for potatoes to an average $4.97 per kilogram;
• 7 percent more for stewing beef to $20.48 a kilogram;
• 9 percent more for tea to $4.39 per 20 bags;
• 11 percent more for canned tuna to $1.82 per 170 gram can;
• 12 percent more for carrots to $3.65 per 1.4 kilogram bag;
• 14 percent more for hamburger to $11.72 a kilogram;
• 15 percent more for baby food to $1.64 per 128 millilitre jar;
• 18 percent more for peanut butter to $6.27 per one kilogram jar;
• 19 percent more for orange juice to $4.70 per two litre jug;
• 20 percent more for baby formula to $41.16 per 900 grams;
• 27 percent more for white sugar to $2.92 per two kilogram bag.

However, the news should not be surprising to Canadians considering a December report which estimated that food costs for a family of four in Canada will increase by $700 in 2024 amid the ongoing carbon tax and rising inflation. 

At the time, Canadian Taxpayer Federation Director Franco Terrazzano told LifeSiteNews, “The carbon tax makes grocery prices more expensive.”   

“When Trudeau’s carbon tax makes it more expensive for farmers to grow food and truckers to deliver food, his carbon tax makes it more expensive for families to buy food,” he explained.   

“The carbon tax will cost Canadian farmers $1 billion by 2030,” Terrazzano added. “The government could make groceries more affordable for Canadians by scrapping the carbon tax.” 

Additionally, a September report by Statistics Canada revealed that food prices are rising faster than the headline inflation rate – the overall inflation rate in the country – as staple food items are increasing at a rate of 10 to 18 percent year-over-year.   

Despite numerous reports indicating Canadians are experiencing financial hardship, the Trudeau government has largely ignored the pleas of those asking for help, while consistently denying their policies have any impact on inflation or the economy more broadly.  

Trudeau has continued to refuse to extend the carbon tax exemption to all forms of home heating, instead only giving relief to Liberal voting provinces.   

The carbon tax, framed as a way to reduce carbon emissions, has cost Canadians hundreds more annually despite rebates.        

The increased costs are only expected to rise, as a recent report revealed that a carbon tax of more than $350 per tonne is needed to reach Trudeau’s net-zero goals by 2050.       

Currently, Canadians living in provinces under the federal carbon pricing scheme pay $65 per tonne, but the Trudeau government has a goal of $170 per tonne by 2030.      

The Trudeau government’s current environmental goals – which are in lockstep with the United Nations’ “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” – include phasing out coal-fired power plants, reducing fertilizer usage, and curbing natural gas use over the coming decades. 

The reduction and eventual elimination of so-called “fossil fuels” and a transition to unreliable “green” energy has also been pushed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – the globalist group behind the socialist “Great Reset” agenda in which Trudeau and some of his cabinet are involved.   

However, some western provinces have declared they will not follow the regulations but instead focus on the wellbeing of Canadians.     

Both Alberta and Saskatchewan have repeatedly promised to place the interests of their people above the Trudeau government’s “unconstitutional” demands, while consistently reminding the federal government that their infrastructures and economies depend upon oil, gas, and coal.    

“We will never allow these regulations to be implemented here, full stop,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith recently declared. “If they become the law of the land, they would crush Albertans’ finances, and they would also cause dramatic increases in electricity bills for families and businesses across Canada.”       

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has likewise promised to fight back against Trudeau’s new regulations, saying recently that “Trudeau’s net-zero electricity regulations are unaffordable, unrealistic and unconstitutional.”     

“They will drive electricity rates through the roof and leave Saskatchewan with an unreliable power supply. Our government will not let the federal government do that to the Saskatchewan people,” he charged.