GTA parents feeling the pinch of a more expensive back-to-school season

For Toronto mother Tanya Hayles, getting ready for back-to-school 2023 has been anything but easy.

"All the things that they need have gone up in price," said Hayles, the mother of a 10-year-old son and founder of the group Black Moms Connection. She's also gone from a shared household to paying the full rent, in addition to taking on all the other household expenses — and back-to-school costs haven't been cheap.

"I think when people think of back to school, they think very narrowly; like new crayons, a new backpack. But they forget about all the other things that come along with it."

Those other things include clothing, electronics and everything else that comes with in-person learning.

"The pandemic really kind of made us forget about all the extra costs, the pizza lunches, the school pictures, like all the other things that are associated with the school year," said Hayles.

She says that based on conversations she's had with other parents, she's not alone in feeling the pinch.

"Everyone is in the same boat," she said.

"I think every parent, whether they're married couples with a house in Brampton or a single parent or co-parenting down in the Beaches — I'm hearing the same thing across the board."

New figures released by Statistics Canada in August show that the price of many school stationery supplies, lunch box food staples and after-school activities have gone up this year. That, coupled with the growing cost of many items and services stemming from rising inflation rates means this September's back-to-school season is hitting some parents harder.

Statistics Canada data also shows that prices for children's clothing are running below the pace of inflation, and electronics that might be used for schooling have gone down year-over-year. But parents will still have to deal with price jumps like a 12.9 per cent hike for stationery supplies when compared to last July.

Some experts say they're not surprised that supplies like binders, pencils, or paper are going up in price, because the products have a lower value per kilogram.

"When you're trying to move bulky things that aren't worth a lot per unit of volume or per unit weight, the transportation cost makes up a larger fraction of the selling cost than it does with other products," said David Soberman, professor of marketing at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

Soberman says overall, prices are much worse than last year. 

"When we think back to the previous back-to-school season, which was September 2022, in a way we could think inflation was just getting started," said Soberman.