A GROCERIES AND ESSENTIALS BENEFIT
FOR CANADA
There’s nothing normal about half of Canadians living paycheque to paycheque. People in Canada need immediate relief, and the Groceries and Essentials Benefit is the best way to ensure that every Canadian can afford their daily cost of living.
WHAT IS THE GROCERIES AND ESSENTIALS BENEFIT?
The Groceries and Essentials Benefit aims to help struggling households afford vital costs like food and shelter. It focuses on low-income families, directly aiding those hit hardest by food insecurity and poverty.
This solution works quickly –the structure is already in place. By adjusting the GST/HST credit, this benefit ensures extra support reaches those who need it most.
This initiative responds to the urgent need to tackle hunger and health issues among vulnerable groups like single mothers, Indigenous families, and people with disabilities, who face the brunt of rising living costs and stagnant incomes.
WHO IS THE BENEFIT FOR?
Right now, roughly 7 million people in Canada – nearly 1 in 4 of us – are food insecure.
That’s 1 in 4 people having to skip meals or having to make impossible choices between going to bed hungry or filling the gas tank.
Since 2020, the struggle faced by people in this country has led to a massive increase in the number of food bank visits. People’s incomes no longer stretch far enough to meet the everyday cost of living. Each month, there are nearly two million visits, which includes over 600,000 visits by children who rely on food banks to meet their basic needs.
The story of struggle is not unique to only food bank visitors. Most Canadians can agree that the cost of living has become a great concern for them.
WHY WE NEED THE GROCERIES AND ESSENTIALS BENEFIT NOW.
While governments have taken important action on key issues like affordable housing, pharmacare, and dental care – many of these changes won’t be felt for many years. We don’t yet understand how much these changes will help people. And we know that they won’t help people who are struggling today.
The Groceries and Essentials Benefit will help people struggling RIGHT NOW. It is the best way to ensure that people don’t fall further into the cracks.
Join us and tell your MP that we’re tired of our neighbours struggling
We’re tired of inaction.
That people in Canada deserve better
And we will never accept poverty or food insecurity as normal
For more information on the Groceries and Essentials Benefit, read our report here visit foodbankscanada.ca/hungercount
Read Food Banks Canada’s landmark Canada-wide Poverty Report Card