Climate change, COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine are driving up food prices in N.L.
CBC
Rebecca Schliett says her fridge looks emptier by the week.
The St. John's mother of two relied on a family member to drop off food this week. Two boxes of produce: expired, but still edible.
Without those groceries, she says, she'd have some dire choices to make.
"You do start to have to make decisions on, are you going to skip this meal with your kids, because that gives them a bit more? Or not — are you too hungry today?" Schliett said in a recent interview.
Schliett says she's had to borrow money to supplement her grocery budget as food prices ratchet upward across Newfoundland and Labrador. The same amount of cash no longer buys her what it did the last time she made a trip to the supermarket, she says.
Others in Schliett's boat have leaned heavily on sale items, driving to different stores to save money as sticker prices ticked upward in recent months, says Sarah Crocker, a program co-ordinator with Food First N.L.
Last year, the food security organization assessed how residents are coping with high prices in the St. John's area.
"There's this huge gap between income … and the cost of food," Crocker said.
St. John's is the most food-insecure major metropolitan area in the country, according to Crocker. And rising prices of everything across Canada aren't doing the most vulnerable any favours.
In February, Canadian consumer prices increased 5.7 per cent year over year, according to Statistics Canada — the largest gain in over 30 years. "Price increases were broad-based in February, pinching the pocketbooks of Canadians," the agency said in a recent report on inflation.
"That means people are compromising on the quality or variety, or even the amount of food they have," Crocker explained.
Josh Smee, CEO of Food First N.L., says small recent increases to income supplements are the right way to ameliorate hunger in the province.
"We know that food insecurity is mostly an income issue. We know that people's dollars aren't going as far as they were before," Smee said.
But those support payments should be indexed to inflation, he added. "Effectively we've been cutting everyone's income support every year," he said.
WARNING: This story details allegations of child abuse.
It’s been hard to keep track of how many legal challenges and active court proceedings the United Conservative government has tried to quash or pre-emptively block in the last six weeks, but let’s try to tally:
Margaret Walker, the emcee of a Waterloo vigil commemorating the victims of the Montreal massacre, doesn't feel enough is being done to reflect on the killings and address gender-based violence.
The P.E.I. Humane Society says it is doing far more fundraising than it used to, and rising expenses — including the cost of animal medications — are a big reason why.
Ottawa is staring down a court-ordered deadline to submit a new plan to reform the on-reserve child welfare system, as a group of First Nations leaders and children’s advocates prepare a competing proposal.
An underpass revitalization project that was meant to pay tribute to the people of Parkdale has instead deteriorated into “a garbage dump,” according to nearby residents.
A young man has been charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm after a fire at a frat party near Western University that injured five sorority sisters, including two seriously, late Tuesday night.
The massive deal to combine one of Hollywood's oldest studios with a streaming giant hasn't even been approved yet, but it's already riling multiple related industries and politicians concerned about monopolies and media concentration.
Mi'kmaq chiefs and a former Nova Scotia justice minister are criticizing the provincial government for directing police to crack down on illegal cannabis, saying the order undermines relations with Indigenous Peoples.
For years, there has been “glaring inequity” in the way the province has allocated the millions of dollars in its county roads budget, according to Department of Transportation Minister Chuck Chiasson.
Six months after passing a law aimed at making it easier for new grocery stores to open, Manitoba's premier says lower grocery bills could be on the horizon.
Timothy Smith was acting in self-defence when he punched Landon Waddell, and shouldn't be found guilty of manslaughter, his lawyer says.
Thoroughbred horse racing at Vancouver’s Hastings Racecourse is ending after more than a century, with the operator announcing Friday it will no longer run a racing season at the historic facility.