Canada is facing some huge challenges to the right to food. We’re in the middle of a food price and food insecurity crisis, a climate crisis, and a trade war, to name a few.
With the Canadian federal election campaign well underway, we’re eager to hear new policy ideas that address these challenges. Advancing the right to food will require decisive action by the federal government. While provinces and cities have important roles to play, we need federal leadership.
Over the past year, Food First NL has worked with partners across Canada to advance a set of federal policy priorities on the right to food. Here are the four recommendations that we are looking for in parties’ election platforms:
Recommendation 1: Enhance existing income supports
Only large-scale income-based programs can reduce food insecurity. We recommend establishing a Basic Income Guarantee for all Canadians (see Recommendation 2). In the short term, the Government of Canada has many viable options for immediate action that would not conflict with establishing a basic income. These options should focus on Canadians aged 18–64, where our social safety net is the weakest.
Specifically, we join our colleagues from around the country to recommend the Government of Canada:
→ Expand and strengthen the Canada Disability Benefit
This would mean:
Increasing the amount from the current $200/month
Investing in supports and processes that make the benefit as accessible as possible
Individualizing the benefit rather than means-testing against family income
Excluding the benefit from provincial, territorial, and federal clawbacks
→ Transform the GST/HST credit into a Groceries and Essentials Benefit
This would mean:
Moving to monthly payments rather than quarterly
Providing a monthly benefit of up to $150 per adult aged 18–64 and $50 per child
→ Transform the Canada Workers Benefit into an enhanced Canada Working-Age Supplement
This would entail:
Removing the requirement for employment earnings and increasing the maximum earning limit
→ Enhance Employment Insurance to support all workers
This would mean:
Reducing the qualifying hours from 420–700 to 300 for all workers
Ensuring access for all workers, including:
self-employed people, gig, and migrant workers
people working multiple jobs who lose one of their jobs
workers who voluntarily leave low-paying, precarious work to seek better employment.
Increasing benefit rates to 85% of previously earned income for low-wage workers and 75% for all other workers
Recommendation 2: Resource and engage with the movement to create a basic income in Canada
Establishing a Basic Income Guarantee would transform Canada. It would equip this country and its people to meet the future with security, safety, and good health. Studies show that popular support for basic income is high.
Provincial governments in Atlantic Canada are leaders in implementing a basic income. In P.E.I., there is an all-party consensus and a detailed plan for a demonstration project. In Newfoundland and Labrador, there is a suite of targeted basic income programs moving ahead alongside an all-party committee process.
The Government of Canada has a critical role in enabling basic income work in Atlantic Canada and bringing the conversation to a national level. With that in mind, we recommend that the Government of Canada:
→ Fund a Demonstration Project on Prince Edward Island in the 2025 Budget
The Proposal for a Guaranteed Basic Income (GBI) Benefit in Prince Edward Island presents a basic income model for a fully funded 5–7 year demonstration program in P.E.I. They estimate that this proposed GBI would reduce the poverty rate for Islanders aged 18 to 64 from almost 10% to nearly 2% and ensure that no Islander lives in deep poverty.
Currently, a Federal/Provincial joint working group has been struck to discuss the project. We recommend expanding the scope of their work to include implementation details. If this project is implemented, it will provide incredibly valuable data to other provinces moving towards a basic income (like N.L.).
→ Develop a national basic income framework
This would mean:
Funding and providing human resources to develop a national framework for simpler, fairer, more adequate, efficient, and effective basic income security for all, including funding for engaging other orders of government and civil society
Funding and providing technical, administrative, and policy resources to support provincial, territorial, and Indigenous initiatives that can contribute to building a national framework
E.g. research, evaluation, analysis, modeling, and public engagement.
Recommendation 3: Set targets for food insecurity reduction
Targets to measure against are a critical element of progress. Food First NL has repeatedly joined partners from across the country in calling for a national target for food insecurity reduction. We once again join the call to set a target of reducing food insecurity by 50% and eliminating severe food insecurity by 2030, relative to 2021 levels
Recommendation 4: Invest in Indigenous food sovereignty
Indigenous organizations and governments all over Canada are taking action to restore sovereignty over their food systems. The Government of Canada can and should support this work. While the shape of this support must be decided in conversation with Indigenous communities themselves, we join calls for the Government of Canada to:
→ Uphold joint custodianship of Canada
The government must honour its commitments under Nation-to-Nation agreements to share responsibilities with Indigenous peoples in caring for all natural resources in Canada.
→ Collect and publish timely and actionable race-based data
This must include funding Indigenous and Black-led research on food insecurity to ensure that land access, agriculture, and food security policies equitably reflect Indigenous and Black experiences.
→ Invest in programs and infrastructure for traditional and country food access
This investment would support Indigenous communities' access to traditional and country foods in whatever form makes sense for them.
