The news is filled with stories on rising costs, and the Bank of Canada could potentially raise interest rates in July to slow inflation. With these uncompromising rate hikes, we are still seeing high prices for food forecasted to go up again. I had hoped our local growers would offer some relief for families but their prices have risen along with the grocery chains.
If things don’t change and businesses refuse to change the trajectory of the inflation train by taking advantage of price comparison strategies I believe we are in for a major correction and that spells a full-blown recession. The majority of working-class families are beyond their saturation point, over 50% of Canadian households are $1.85 in debt for every dollar earned. I am old enough to say I have lived through two recessions and they take a long time to recover from and many people don’t.
Our government is trillions of dollars in debt, and those benefiting from soaring costs (reporting record profits) are now starting to fracture with bankruptcies up, massive layoffs, and companies closing many of their chain stores.
I have been a voice and proponent for supporting our growers, buying local, and pressuring government to do more for our food producers. What disappoints me is the reason for rising food costs is the cost of fuel, shipping, fertilizers and fractured supply chains. What I see locally are self-owned food stands and storefronts using healthy growing practices free of GMO; no sprays; chemical fertilizer free, and no shipping required. Taxes and water costs are the same, wages may be part of this, but many of these farms are family owned and run and many offer what they grow as a subsidy to wages to part-time workers.
When the prices are higher for locally grown than the grocery chains making record profits – it is hard to support food security when the people who work, live and eat here cannot afford to buy local while the cost of housing, fuel, taxes, utilities, and childcare, is so high. Something has got to give and someone has to show courage to change the unsustainable.
Jo-Anne Berezanski
North Saanich
