Written by Henry Khamonde

 

It seems although elections are in fashion this time of year, so with the federal election on the horizon on April 28th, we are going to take a look at how our federally elected officials can provide direction for lasting change in the food landscape across Canada. With nearly one quarter of Canadians (23%) living with food insecurity, it is time that candidates commit to a national policy and framework that ensures the long-term sustainability and viability of our food systems. We present a guide that will help with understanding how to engage in the electoral process with a focus on food insecurity.

What can the federal government do to address food insecurity?

People are being burdened with debt, meals are being skipped, and food banks are at or are exceeding capacity; the next federal government–especially with tariff threats from the Trump Administration–can and must address Canada’s current agri-food landscape with urgency and desperation. This means all policy decisions–from tax to trade–must have a food and agriculture lens attached to it. Federal parties can strengthen our internal agri-food networks by prioritizing food sovereignty. Food sovereignty enables and encourages communities to shape their own food systems, and there are a multitude of ways that the incumbent government can achieve this. This includes implementing a universal food program in schools, protecting and supplying Canadian supply management, fostering community resilience and sustainability, fortifying infrastructures, and advancing Black and Indigenous rights to healthy and culturally appropriate food.

 

Food Banks Canada, The Food Bank’s federal partner, has put forward several policy recommendations for the federal government to consider:

• Rebuild Canada’s Social Safety Net
  • Ensure all federal benefits are indexed to inflation and that agreements with provincial governments explicitly forbid clawbacks of provincial social supports for new federal benefit programs such as the Canada Disability Benefit.
  • Make single adults with low incomes a priority consideration in all future poverty reduction measures, including an expanded and modernized Employment Insurance (EI), to ensure that this population is no longer left behind.
    • As part of this, commit to a clear timetable for when the government would bring forward EI modernization reforms.
• Solve the Affordable Housing Crisis
  • Commit to examining the potential for a national rent assistance program, delivered in collaboration with the provinces and territories as part of the federal-provincial housing agreements.
  • Introduce new investments to build more supportive housing for people who have mental and physical health issues, particularly among populations who are marginalized or who are living with low incomes.
  • Double the Canada Rental Protection Fund from $1.5 billion to $3 billion.
• Help Workers with Low Incomes
  • Permanently broaden the EI qualifying definition of “employment” to include self-employed and precarious work.
  • Offer improved support to workers who are currently employed and have a low income.
  • Immediately expand the Working-While-on-Claim (WWC) provisions in EI to allow workers to retain more of their income from temporary/part-time work while on EI without losing benefits or having their income clawed back.
  • Review and reduce the number of qualifying “hours of employment” needed (currently between 420 and 700 hours of insurable employment) to better reflect the nature of modern jobs and working situations.
  • Extend the maximum duration of EI benefits beyond 45 weeks to 52 weeks, followed by a staggered reduction in cash benefits while retaining access to non-cash EI supports (such as training and education) so that Canadians are not forced into broken and grossly inadequate provincial social assistance system once their EI benefits terminate.

Federal party platforms

Take a look at what each party’s intended approach to directly* address the issues of food insecurity across the country, and remember to VOTE (sources: Food Banks Canada, Liberal Party of Canada, NDP):

 

Liberal Party of Canada:

• Protect Canada’s commitment to supply management and supply-managed sectors such as dairy, poultry, and eggs;
• Making permanent the doubling of the revenue protection for farmers under the AgriStability Program, from $3 million to $6 million per farm, in the case of significant revenue drops caused by the impacts of tariffs, extreme weather events, and other external shocks;
• Build more domestic processing capacity, including food processing capacity in rural and remote areas, with a new $200 million Domestic Food Processing Fund;
• Increase support for farmers, ranchers, and producers to access new markets for their food products with an additional $30 million into the AgriMarketing Program;
• Increase the help for farmers and ranchers to buy new, more efficient farm equipment with a $30 million top up to the Agriculture Clean Technology Program; and,
• Double the loan guarantee limit, from $500,000 to $1 million, of the Canadian Agricultural Loans Act program and expand terms by 5-10 years.

Conservative Party of Canada:

• No major announcements yet.

 

Bloc Québécois:

• The Bloc Quebecois have committed to table a bill, presumably in June, to guarantee local purchasing and reserve a percentage of Canadian content in federal public contracts and procurements, inspired by the Buy American Act.
• The bill will force Ottawa to give preference to local suppliers in its procurement of goods and services. This law will include a 25% advantage in calls for tenders for Quebec and Canadian companies. Where it is not possible to find a local supplier, this legislation will second favour foreign companies that will guarantee local economic benefits.
• The Bloc Québécois also intends to give priority to SMEs over large corporations, where possible, and to exclude businesses that do not pay their fair share of taxes by resorting to tax havens.

 

New Democratic Party:

• Implement emergency price caps on essential grocery items to “tariff-proof” our food security;
• Enforce a mandatory Grocery Code of Conduct to regulate pricing practices and prevent wage cuts in response to caps;
• Fully empower the Competition Bureau to act as a grocery price watchdog and crack down on price fixing;
• Tax the windfall profits of major grocery retailers like Loblaws, Walmart, Costco, and Empire Foods; and
• Reform Nutrition North so the subsidy goes directly to northerners—not to corporate chains like North Mart.

* These are policies directly related to food access and the cost of food, however other poverty reduction strategies also help to address issues related to food insecurity. See the rest of the platforms at Food Banks Canada’s Party Platform Monitor.

 

Who’s running for election in Toronto?

Beaches-East York

Nate Erskine-Smith, Liberal Party of Canada

Jack Pennings, Green Party of Canada

Jocelyne Poirier, Conservative Party of Canada

Steve Rutchinski, Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada

 

Davenport

Lilian Barrera, Green Party of Canada

Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal Party of Canada

Francis Lavoie, Conservative Party of Canada

Dave McKee, Communist Party of Canada

Sandra Sousa, New Democratic Party

 

Don Valley North

Maggie Chi, Liberal Party of Canada

Xiaohua Gong, No Affiliation

Naila Saeed, New Democratic Party

Joe Tay, Conservative Party of Canada

 

Don Valley West

Bahira Abdulsalam, Independent

Rob Oliphant, Liberal Party of Canada

Robert Pierce, Conservative Party of Canada

Sheena Sharp, Green Party of Canada

 

Eglinton–Lawrence

Vince Gasparro, Liberal Party of Canada

Timothy Gleeson, People’s Party of Canada

Karen Stintz, Conservative Party of Canada

Allison Tanzola, New Democratic Party

 

Etobicoke Centre

Yvan Baker, Liberal Party of Canada

Ted Opitz, Conservative Party of Canada

 

Etobicoke North

Benjamin Abis, New Democratic Party

Andy D’Andrea, People’s Party of Canada

Sarun Balaranjan, Green Party of Canada

Neil Simon, Independent

John Zerucelli, Liberal Party of Canada

 

Etobicoke–Lakeshore

James Maloney, Liberal Party of Canada

Janice Murray, Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada

Bernard Trottier, Conservative Party of Canada

 

Humber River–Black Creek

Matias de Dovitiis, New Democratic Party

Jeanne McGuire, Communist Party of Canada

Bijay Paudel, Conservative Party of Canada

Judy Sgro, Liberal Party of Canada

 

Scarborough Centre–Don Valley East

Belent Mathew, Conservative Party of Canada

Salma Zahid, Liberal Party of Canada

 

Scarborough North

Shaun Chen, Liberal Party of Canada

Karishma Manji, New Democratic Party

Gurmit Sandhu, Conservative Party of Canada

 

Scarborough Southwest

Bill Blair, Liberal Party of Canada

Amanda Cain, Green Party of Canada

Imran Khan, Centrist Party of Canada

Christine Nugent, Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada

Michael Poulin, People’s Party of Canada

Fatima Shaban, New Democratic Party

Asm Tarun, Conservative Party of Canada

 

Scarborough–Agincourt

Aris Movsessian, Conservative Party of Canada

Jean Yip, Liberal Party of Canada

 

Scarborough–Guildwood–Rouge Park

Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal Party of Canada

Suchita Jalan, Conservative Party of Canada

Kingsley Kwok, New Democratic Party

 

Scarborough–Woburn

Gianne Broughton, Green Party of Canada

Michael Coteau, Liberal Party of Canada

Reddy Muttukuru, Conservative Party of Canada

George Wedge, New Democratic Party

 

Spadina–Harbourfront

Norm Di Pasquale, New Democratic Party

Diana Filipova, Conservative Party of Canada

Gilbert Joseph Jubinville, People’s Party of Canada

Nick Lin, Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada

Chi Nguyen, Liberal Party of Canada

Gordon Rand, Green Party of Canada

Shrey Rao, Independent

 

Taiaiako’n–Parkdale–High Park

Karim Bardeesy, Liberal Party of Canada

Edward Fraser, Animal Protection Party of Canada

Lorne Gershuny, Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada

Anna Gorka, Green Party of Canada

Bhutila Karpoche, New Democratic Party

Wladyslaw Lizon, Conservative Party of Canada

Terry Parker, Marijuana Party

Rimmy Riarh, Communist Party of Canada

 

Toronto Centre

Philip Fernandez, Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada

Samantha Green, New Democratic Party

Luis Ibarra, Conservative Party of Canada

Olivia Iheme, Green Party of Canada

Simon Luisi, Animal Protection Party of Canada

Cleveland Marshall, Independent

Nathen Mazri, People’s Party of Canada

Evan Solomon, Liberal Party of Canada

 

Toronto–Danforth

Julie Dabrusin, Liberal Party of Canada

Clare Hacksel, New Democratic Party

Ashik Hussain, Conservative Party of Canada

Liz White, Animal Protection Party of Canada

 

Toronto–St. Paul’s

Leslie Church, Liberal Party of Canada

David Gershuny, Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada

Bruce Levy, New Democratic Party

Shane Philips, Green Party of Canada

Don Stewart, Conservative Party of Canada

Cynthia Valdron, Canadian Future Party

 

University–Rosedale

Barbara Biley, Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada

Chrystia Freeland, Liberal Party of Canada

Adam Golding, Independent

LIZ Grade, Conservative Party of Canada

Ignacio Mongrell, Green Party of Canada

Serena Purdy, New Democratic Party

 

Willowdale

Ali Ehsassi, Liberal Party of Canada

Christy Kheirallah, New Democratic Party

James Lin, Conservative Party of Canada

 

York Centre

Roman Baber, Conservative Party of Canada

Ya’ara Saks, Liberal Party of Canada

Yusuf Ulukanligil, New Democratic Party

 

York South–Weston–Etobicoke

Ahmed Hussen, Liberal Party of Canada

Louise James, New Democratic Party

Nicolas Pham, Conservative Party of Canada