Some Canadians are cutting back on spending this Christmas as they face yet another year of inflation.
For many, wallets are feeling especially light as they struggle to meet the expectations of buying gifts and cooking special meals for family and friends over the holidays.
“I think people really feel that financial pressure to maintain the level of tradition, or the level of comfort, or the level of entertainment that they have been used to up to this point,” said Janet Music, a research associate at Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab.
“There’s a real emotional connection we have to our traditions and what we think of when we think of this time of year, what we have on the table and what that means, and that can be very pricey.”
A traditional Christmas meal for a group of four to six people will cost about $104.85 on average this year, according to her lab’s data. That includes turkey, potatoes, sauces, vegetables, stuffing, tourtiere, eggnog and dessert.
The cost will vary depending where you live in Canada — food prices are higher in Maritime provinces, for example, and even more in the northern territories.
While food prices are slowly dropping after three years of inflation, items typically associated with holiday dinners remain pricey. Turkey is up five per cent from last year, while potatoes are up nearly seven per cent and carrots almost 13 per cent, according to the lab’s data.
Some shoppers at St. Vital Mall in Winnipeg told CBC last weekend they were cutting back on expenditures for the holidays, including gift buying, because of rising costs.
Information Radio – MB4:39Can Christmas debt be avoided? Winnipeggers share what they’re doing to save money this holiday season
What is the best way to avoid Christmas debt? With inflation high, it seems to be the question that’s top of mind for some Manitobans this holiday season. CBC’s Bartley Kives speaking with Winnipeggers at St. Vital Mall. about how they’re managing their Christmas shopping with high inflation rates
“Cost of living has affected a lot of things, because usually we go all out on Christmas, but with the price of groceries and inflation, we are actually cutting back a lot [of] expenditures this year,” shopper Angie Stephenson told CBC Manitoba.
Rohit Sahu told CBC that said he’s more aware now of how he spends every dollar. “Everything’s so expensive that you’re just cutting costs and trying to … be low-key and save money,” he said.
He said he’s a window shopper because nothing has met his high bar for what qualifies as a bargain right now. “The deals are good, but still not affordable for us.”
Food budgets stretched
The number of Canadians using food banks across the country reached record highs this year, with more than 1.9 million visits to food banks in March 2023, surpassing the previous record set last year by 32 per cent.
In a national survey released in October 2022, 30 per cent of Canadians said they were eating less healthy food due to rising costs. Almost 20 per cent said they skipped meals to save money.
The Agri-Food Analytics Lab predicts food prices will continue to rise next year, but at a lower rate of 2.5 to 4.5 per cent overall.
While Statistics Canada data shows the food component of the consumer price index has risen by 5.9 per cent in the past 12 months, the Agri-Food lab’s 2024 report found the average family actually spent $693 less on food.
That means they were likely eating less or downgrading to cheaper alternatives to cover other rising expenses.
According to a July poll conducted by Ipsos, 47 per cent of meat eaters said they planned to cut back on their meat consumption this year. Cost was the most common reason cited for the decision.
Inflation takes a bite out of holiday shopping budgets
Shoppers at Sherway Gardens in Toronto tell CBC News how their holiday spending plans have changed this year, as family budgets adjust to the current era of high inflation.
Some of the reason for cutbacks this holiday season is because of inflation-related financial pressures being felt in other areas, like housing, Music said.
“[The food budget] is something that people dip into when they need to cover some of these larger costs. Imagine you renegotiated your mortgage at a higher rate or your rent has been suddenly increased. It’s not something you can fix in the short term,” Music said.
“Shelter, right now, is the thing that’s really eating into all of this other discretionary spending.”
‘Emotionally hard’
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem said last week that consumer confidence is at a recessionary low — even with the unemployment rate at pre-COVID levels — and there’s “no question” inflation is a big part of the problem.
“People feel like they’re working hard, but their paycheques, [they’re] not buying what they used to,” he said at a media availability following his final speech of the year.
Music says some Canadians, including people she knows, are forgoing the traditional Christmas gathering altogether.
“Me and my friends, in our extended relationships, we see that happening,” Music says.
“Maybe you don’t want to risk it because you just don’t know what next month is going to bring. So it’s something that just has to get let go, and that’s emotionally hard on people.”
MONCTON, N.B. – New Brunswick RCMP say two youths have been arrested after an emergency alert was issued Monday evening about someone carrying a gun in the province’s southeast.
Caledonia Region Mounties say they were first called out to Main Street in the community of Salisbury around 7 p.m. on reports of a shooting.
A 48-year-old man was found at the scene suffering from gunshot wounds and he was rushed to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police say in the interest of public safety, they issued an Alert Ready message at 8:15 p.m. for someone driving a silver Ford F-150 pickup truck and reportedly carrying a firearm with dangerous intent in the Salisbury and Moncton area.
Two youths were arrested without incident later in the evening in Salisbury, and the alert was cancelled just after midnight Tuesday.
Police are still looking for the silver pickup truck, covered in mud, with possible Nova Scotia licence plate HDC 958. They now confirm the truck was stolen from Central Blissville.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Golf Canada has set an impressive stretch goal of having 30 professional golfers at the highest levels of the sport by 2032.
The World Junior Girls Golf Championship is a huge part of that target.
Credit Valley Golf and Country Club will host the international tournament from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, with 24 teams representing 23 nations — Canada gets two squads — competing. Lindsay McGrath, a 17-year-old golfer from Oakville, Ont., said she’s excited to be representing Canada and continue to develop her game.
“I’m really grateful to be here,” said McGrath on Monday after a news conference in Credit Valley’s clubhouse in Mississauga, Ont. “It’s just such an awesome feeling being here and representing our country, wearing all the logos and being on Team Canada.
“I’ve always wanted to play in this tournament, so it’s really special to me.”
McGrath will be joined by Nobelle Park of Oakville, Ont., and Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta., on Team Canada 2. All three earned their places through a qualifying tournament last month.
“I love my teammates so much,” said McGrath. “I know Nobelle and Eileen very well. I’m just so excited to be with them. We have such a great relationship.”
Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont., Calgary’s Aphrodite Deng and Clairey Lin make up Team Canada 2. Liu earned her exemption following her win at the 2024 Canadian Junior Girls Championship while Deng earned her exemption as being the low eligible Canadian on the world amateur golf ranking as of Aug. 7.
Deng was No. 175 at the time, she has since improved to No. 171 and is Canada’s lowest-ranked player.
“I think it’s a really great opportunity,” said Liu. “We don’t really get that many opportunities to play with people from across the world, so it’s really great to meet new people and play with them.
“It’s great to see maybe how they play and take parts from their game that we might also implement our own games.”
Golf Canada founded the World Junior Girls Golf Championship in 2014 to fill a void in women’s international competition and help grow its own homegrown talent. The hosts won for the first time last year when Vancouver’s Anna Huang, Toronto’s Vanessa Borovilos and Vancouver’s Vanessa Zhang won team gold and Huang earned individual silver.
Medallists who have gone on to win on the LPGA Tour include Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., who was fourth in the individual competition at the inaugural tournament. She was on Canada’s bronze-medal team in 2014 with Selena Costabile of Thornhill, Ont., and Calgary’s Jaclyn Lee.
Other notable competitors who went on to become LPGA Tour winners include Angel Yin and Megan Khang of the United States, as well as Yuka Saso of the Philippines, Sweden’s Linn Grant and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand.
“It’s not if, it’s when they’re going to be on the LPGA Tour,” said Garrett Ball, Golf Canada’s chief operating officer, of how Canada’s golfers in the World Junior Girls Championship can be part of the organization’s goal to have 30 pros in the LPGA and PGA Tours by 2032.
“Events like this, like the She Plays Golf festival that we launched two years ago, and then the CPKC Women’s Open exemptions that we utilize to bring in our national team athletes and get the experience has been important in that pathway.”
The individual winner of the World Junior Girls Golf Championship will earn a berth in next year’s CPKC Women’s Open at nearby Mississaugua Golf and Country Club.
Both clubs, as well as former RBC Canadian Open host site Glen Abbey Golf Club, were devastated by heavy rains through June and July as the Greater Toronto Area had its wettest summer in recorded history.
Jason Hanna, the chief operating officer of Credit Valley Golf and Country Club, said that he has seen the Credit River flood so badly that it affected the course’s playability a handful of times over his nearly two decades with the club.
Staff and members alike came together to clean up the course after the flooding was over, with hundreds of people coming together to make the club playable again.
“You had to show up, bring your own rake, bring your own shovel, bring your own gloves, and then we’d take them down to the golf course, assign them to areas where they would work, and then we would do a big barbecue down at the halfway house,” said Hanna. “We got guys, like, 80 years old, putting in eight-hour days down there, working away.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
NEW YORK (AP) — Fenway Park has the Ted Williams seat. And now Citi Field has the Grimace seat.
The kid-friendly McDonald’s character made another appearance at the ballpark Monday, when the New York Mets unveiled a commemorative purple seat in section 302 to honor “his special connection to Mets fans.”
Wearing his pear-shaped purple costume and a baseball glove on backwards, Grimace threw out a funny-looking first pitch — as best he could with those furry fingers and short arms — before New York beat the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on June 12.
That victory began a seven-game winning streak, and Grimace the Mets’ good-luck charm soon went viral, taking on a life of its own online.
New York is 53-31 since June 12, the best record in the majors during that span. The Mets were tied with rival Atlanta for the last National League playoff spot as they opened their final homestand of the season Monday night against Washington.
The new Grimace seat in the second deck in right field — located in row 6, seat 12 to signify 6/12 on the calendar — was brought into the Shannon Forde press conference room Monday afternoon. The character posed next to the chair and with fans who strolled into the room.
The seat is available for purchase for each of the Mets’ remaining home games.
“It’s been great to see how our fanbase created the Grimace phenomenon following his first pitch in June and in the months since,” Mets senior vice president of partnerships Brenden Mallette said in a news release. “As we explored how to further capture the magic of this moment and celebrate our new celebrity fan, installing a commemorative seat ahead of fan appreciation weekend felt like the perfect way to give something back to the fans in a fun and unique way.”
Up in Boston, the famous Ted Williams seat is painted bright red among rows of green chairs deep in the right-field stands at Fenway Park to mark where a reported 502-foot homer hit by the Hall of Fame slugger landed in June 1946.
So, does this catapult Grimace into Splendid Splinter territory?
“I don’t know if we put him on the same level,” Mets executive vice president and chief marketing officer Andy Goldberg said with a grin.
“It’s just been a fun year, and at the same time, we’ve been playing great ball. Ever since the end of May, we have been crushing it,” he explained. “So I think that added to the mystique.”
