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Food Banks Canada

Policy
Reccomendations

Food Insecurity Undermines a Strong Canada

Canada is at a crossroads. This past year brought significant political change, including a new federal Liberal mandate under Prime Minister Mark Carney. While the Prime Minister’s early actions suggest a shift in federal priorities — with a focus on sustainable economic growth, affordability, nation-building projects, and public sector modernization — the commitment to reducing poverty and curbing food bank reliance remains uncertain.

This domestic shift is unfolding against a backdrop of rising geopolitical tensions, threats to the global trading system, and an increasingly divided world. The combination of domestic transition, policy uncertainty, and global instability makes it harder to assess whether political will to address poverty is gaining ground or losing momentum. Meanwhile, the need for decisive action on poverty and food insecurity has never been more urgent.

Key Federal Actions on Poverty in 2024–25

The In 2024–25, the federal government took several steps that touch on the underlying conditions contributing to poverty in Canada. While they may not represent a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy, they shape the policy environment in important ways. Key developments included:

Finalizing the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB)

After years of development, the federal government finalized the design of the Canada Disability Benefit in advance of its scheduled rollout in July 2025. While its full impact remains to be seen, the CDB represents a long-overdue income support measure for people with disabilities, one of the groups most at risk of persistent poverty. However, the current amount continues to be inadequate for many people with disabilities.

Rolling out the Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP)

The Canadian Dental Care Plan was launched in 2023, and the initial rollout throughout 2024 included seniors over 65, children under 18, and individuals who qualified for a disability tax credit [70]. All remaining eligible adults have access to the program as of May 2025 [71]. Recent evidence shows the first phase of its rollout may have contributed to the major improvement in seniors’ ability to afford regular dental care.

Launching a National School Food Program

The government began rolling out a national school food program — another long-standing platform commitment of the previous government. Although the program does not directly address the structural causes of food insecurity, it provides moderate affordability relief for low-income families and supports better educational outcomes for children from food-insecure households.

Updating the National Housing Strategy

The federal government revised its housing plan to include billions in new financing for affordable and market-rent housing. While the scale of need remains enormous — millions of units are required — this represents a key investment in efforts to close the housing supply gap and ease rental pressures.

It’s important to note that these actions were taken under two different governments, although both were led by the same political party. The mandate and direction of the new Carney government have identified key areas for targeted action, including getting the federal government back into the business of building homes, accelerating affordable housing construction, improving the EI system, and investing in the North. Although these commitments could contribute to poverty reduction and improved affordability, if fully implemented, more direct and structural reforms are needed if poverty rates are to decline in a meaningful way.

Catalyzing Change

We can create a Canada where no one goes hungry. Through collective action and policy change, government can reduce food insecurity by 50% by 2030. To end food insecurity and reverse the alarming trends seen by food banks across Canada, Food Banks Canada is calling for urgent action in three key areas:

People are falling through the cracks. Canada’s social safety net, once strong and enviable, has become dated and ineffective in the context of the current economic situation. More people are becoming food-insecure and trapped in poverty. Alarmingly, the data shows that employed people are using food banks at a staggering rate. Government must tackle systemic poverty head on to alleviate growing food bank usage by improving Canada’s EI system and repairing the social safety net.

Improve EI
To address the rising rates of food insecurity among working individuals — currently the fastest-growing group of food bank users — the federal government must provide direct support for low-income and precariously employed workers. To effectively support this growing demographic, the federal government must modernize the EI system to reflect today’s labour market realities. Reforms should include:
  • Expanding access to EI for precarious, gig, and self-employed workers and reducing the number of qualifying hours.
  • Enhancing the Working-While-on-Claim program, extending benefit durations to up to 52 weeks.
  • Creating a permanent income support stream for displaced older workers (aged 45–65) impacted by industrial or trade-related disruptions.
These evidence-based policy measures would provide more equitable and comprehensive protection for people who are struggling to stay afloat while working.
Repair the social safety net
Repairing Canada’s social safety net requires a renewed commitment to ensuring no individual falls below a minimum income threshold. A strong safety net must guarantee a basic standard of living and provide reliable support to protect people from poverty, while addressing the mental health and addiction challenges many individuals face. The federal government has taken some promising steps, such as launching the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) and Canadian Dental Care Plan, but these initiatives remain too limited in scope to counter the growing depth and scale of poverty. The Government of Canada’s D grade in the 2025 Poverty Report Card [72] reflects this disconnect.
The federal government must act now to prevent further hardship, starting with a firm commitment to strengthen the CDB. It must:
  • Improve the benefit amount to lift people with disabilities out of poverty, as intended.
  • Enhance the program’s eligibility and accessibility so that more people can apply and benefit from it.
Without bold, immediate action to reinforce the social safety net, poverty and food insecurity will continue to rise, undermining the long-term health and stability of communities across the country.

Life has become increasingly unaffordable for many people. The cost of rent has skyrocketed and has started to hinder people’s ability to buy food. Action is needed to alleviate housing costs and allow people to buy nutritious food. The Government of Canada must move quickly to build affordable homes and enact a Groceries and Essentials Benefit.

Build affordable homes
Housing affordability remains one of the most urgent and widely cited solutions to hunger and poverty in Canada. In 2025, 83% of food banks identified the need for more affordable housing as the single most important policy intervention — up from 61% in 2019. This urgency is underscored by the dramatic rise in housing costs for low-income households, who now spend an average of 66% of their disposable income on shelter. Renters in market-rate housing, especially racialized individuals and recent newcomers living in large urban centres, are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity.
To improve housing affordability, the federal government must act swiftly and decisively on both the supply and demand sides. The Government must:
  • Accelerate the operations of Build Canada Homes to deliver tens of thousands of non-market and affordable rental units annually by leveraging public land and working in partnership with organizations that recognize the value of building such units.
  • Finalize a national housing accord with provinces and municipalities to align funding, reduce development charges, and streamline zoning reforms.
  • Introduce a national rent assistance program — modelled on Manitoba’s successful Rent Assist program — to immediately relieve pressure on renters who have low incomes.
Combining large-scale public building with targeted tenant support is the clearest path to repairing Canada’s broken housing system.
Support food affordability
The rising cost of food is felt most acutely and frequently, literally week after week, at the grocery store. Food is now the top reason food bank clients cite for seeking support, mirroring broader public concern about the impact of food prices on household finances. The dramatic 25% rise in food prices over four years has not been matched by wage growth or adjustments to social assistance, leaving many Canadians increasingly unable to afford even basic necessities.
To provide immediate relief, the federal government must:
  • Introduce a Groceries and Essentials Benefit targeted at Canadians who have low incomes.
  • Model the benefit on the proven GST tax credit system, as recommended by the Affordability Action Council.
  • Increase the CWB or GST credit top-ups during periods of food price shocks.
Implementing these measures would offer direct, timely assistance to households disproportionately affected by food inflation, while also reinforcing public trust in the government’s ability to respond to a worsening affordability crisis.
Food insecurity in Northern Canada is both more severe and more complex than in the provinces, driven by a combination of extreme poverty rates, unaffordable food prices, and systemic barriers to access. Over 22% of people in the territories live below the poverty line — more than double the national average — and 37.5% live in food-insecure households. The crisis is most acute in Nunavut, where nearly 60% of residents experience food insecurity [73]. In addition to high prices, residents deal with poor-quality food, restricted choice, limited availability, and climate change–driven threats to traditional food sources, all of which contribute to a deeper and more entrenched crisis.
To meaningfully reduce food insecurity in the North, policy must shift toward long-term, systemic solutions rooted in equity and Indigenous partnerships.
Nutrition North Canada must be redesigned in collaboration with Northern and Indigenous communities to ensure that food cost relief is both targeted and locally accountable.
The Northern Residents Deduction should be transformed into a refundable, progressive benefit that provides greater support to low- and modest-income households, rather than disproportionately benefiting higher earners.
Although food subsidies and tax relief can help, they are only part of the solution. Addressing Northern food insecurity requires a coordinated federal strategy that tackles affordability, infrastructure gaps, climate resilience, and Indigenous food sovereignty head on.

[70] Health Canada. (2023, December 11). The Canadian Dental Care Plan. Government of Canada.

[71] Matern, R., Notten, G., & Seer, S. (2025, July 31). Don’t miss the good news on poverty reduction in 2025. Policy Options. 

[72] Food Banks Canada (2025). Poverty Report Card.

[73] Statistics Canada. Canadian Income Survey, 2023