TORONTO —
Food prices in Canada are continuing to climb and one expert says increases are starting to impact pantry staples that haven’t risen in cost for decades, such as peanut butter.
Since the beginning of the year, certain food items have risen dramatically in price. Meats are the main culprit, with the price of chicken rising about eight per cent, and pork and beef increasing about five per cent.
According to Statistics Canada data, the cost of staples like coffee and peanut butter has also increased since January, rising by 17 per cent and six per cent, respectively.
Sylvain Charlebois, a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University, told CTV’s Your Morning on Friday this is due to inflation and pandemic-related complications on the food production chain.
“Peanut butter has been priced the same over the last 20 years. From 2000 to 2020, peanut butter is the same price, except for this year; it’s up six per cent,” Charlebois said. “So it tells you how inflation is impacting the entire grocery store.”
While experts predicted that food prices would rise in 2021, Charlebois noted that the impact on products that were not affected for the last 20 years is concerning for those trying to obtain affordable food.
“There’s not a whole lot of safe places for consumers on a tight budget right now,” he said.
According to Canada’s Food Price Report 2021, which was released in December, grocery bills are increasing due to border, plant and distribution centre closures, labour shortages, logistics disruptions, unemployment, shifts in consumer demand, modifications in production, manufacturing, distribution, and retailing practices to enhance safety.
Charlebois, who led the project for the report with the support from colleagues at the University of Guelph, the University of Saskatchewan, and the University of British Columbia, said they were expecting in December that overall food prices would go up by three to five per cent in 2021.
Now, he says that is “exactly” what happened.
“Chicken is like the tide. If chicken goes up, everything else goes up — beef and pork as well. So that’s why a lot of people are seeing higher prices at the meat counter, bakery same thing,” Charlebois said.
While a five per cent cost increase for groceries may not sound like a major jump, it can add up. The report estimated that Canadian families could be paying as much as $695 more for food in 2021 — the highest increase ever predicted by an annual food price report.
Charlebois says climate change is also a major factor in food price increases, as rising temperatures have made it harder and more expensive to grow certain crops in Canada.
“We all know about what went on in B.C. a few weeks ago with temperatures of almost 50 degrees… that makes raspberries cook on plants literally, and so you’re seeing a lot of crops being ruined and scrapped as a result of climate change,” Charlebois said.
However, he says there are technical advances in agricultural practices that could be adopted more widely in Canada to help lower food production costs and grocery bills.
Charlebois says this includes the use of GPS-controlled smart tractors to optimize route planning in fields that minimize soil erosion and reduce fuel costs, as well as building more vertical greenhouses.
He said farmers can also use higher-quality seeds to help crops withstand droughts, and lead to a better and higher-quality crop yield, instead of relying on seeds from the previous year’s harvest.
“We saw McCain announced recently that they’re building vertical farms in Calgary, New Brunswick and in Ontario, so those are good things but we need more of these projects,” Charlebois said.
While these practices would help mitigate increasing food prices, Charlebois acknowledged that more investments in the agriculture sector are needed for farmers to implement them.
“Farmers are very much aware of what’s going on with climate change and they’re becoming more strategic about how to mitigate risks,” he said. “But more importantly, you need more investments in control environment agriculture projects.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
