Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
The average family of four in Canada can expect to spend $966 more on food in 2022 than they did in 2021.
That’s according to a new report published on Thursday by researchers with Dalhousie University, the University of Guelph, the University of Saskatchewan and the University of British Columbia.
The 12th edition of Canada’s Food Price Report projects that in 2022 the average family of four will spend up to $14,767 on food.
The report said overall, food prices are expected to increase by five to seven per cent in 2022, as the country grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing supply chain issues.
But which items will cost more and where? Here’s a closer look at what the report says.
The report’s authors split food into several categories to determine which items will cost more, and by how much.
Here’s a look at the projections for 2022.
According to the report, it will also cost Canadians more to eat out, with prices at restaurants expected to increase by six to eight per cent in 2022.
“Menu prices at restaurants are predicted to increase as businesses contend with rising food prices, rising commercial rents and labour market challenges,” the report reads.
Sylvain Charlebois, who co-authored the report, is a professor at Dalhousie University and the scientific director at Agri-Food Analytics Lab.
He said while the situation is complicated, there are three main factors that are causing food prices to increase.
First, Charlebois said, commodity process are going up.
“That’s really making everything more expensive in the agri-food sector,” he said in a telephone interview with CTVNews.ca. “Including feeding livestock, to making food, to processing, etc.”
The second factor, he said, is labour.
“We’re seeing more and more of the fact that salaries are going up – which is great,” he said. “But in a high-volume, low-margin environment you have to make adjustments with prices.”
The third factor causing prices to increase is logistics, Charlebois explained.
“Transportation is costing more,” he said. “And so some products are more affected than others.”
The authors of the report say they are expecting some “important lingering issues to impact global food supply chains” in 2022.
“With limited access to some ingredients and higher input costs, we anticipate less choice as food processors and manufacturers will consolidate their portfolio of brands,” the report reads.
There will also be fewer menu choices and higher menu prices at restaurants.
“We will continue to feel the effects of ongoing supply chain disruptions due to COVID-19, labour market challenges and high inflation in 2022,” the report said. “Companies may experience high international shipping costs and empty shelves as a result.”
Charlebois said food price increases are a trend Canadians will have to get used to.
“I actually do think that higher prices are here to stay,” he said. “And we’re going to have to get accustomed to higher food bills.”
However, Charlebois said there are ways to save at the grocery store.
He said if consumers are flexible and “food literate” they can find good deals for their food.
Charlebois said if consumers are willing to switch brands or shop at multiple stores, they can save some money at the register.
“If you're very specific, you don't shift your expectations, [and] you’re very difficult -- of course you’re going to pay more,” he said.
The authors of the report say climate change is also impacting food prices.
“In 2022, we can anticipate the ongoing effects of the continuing climate crisis and adverse weather effects on food prices,” the report reads.
The authors say wildfires, record-breaking heat and drought, floods and cold fronts are “becoming increasingly commonplace and affecting food prices year after year.”
“For certain food categories that have felt the impact of adverse weather in 2021, we may yet see an increase in costs because of forward-buying in the chain—for example, meat and grain,” the report says.
According to the report, food prices will vary across the country.
The report projects some provinces – Alberta, British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario and Saskatchewan -- will all experience above average food price increases.
Other provinces – such as Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Quebec -- are expected to see below average food price increases.
The authors of the report warn that in 2022, food insecurity will “be a big issue as Canadians grapple with rising prices.”
“There will likely be more demand for and reliance on food programs or food banks if incomes do not rise to meet food expenditures and other basic needs,” the report reads.
The authors said organizations that provide aid to those experiencing food insecurity might have difficulty meeting increased demand -- something many have already seen.
"People who have made a certain amount of money and always got by are not getting by anymore. And as things have increased, we're seeing people at the window who've never asked for help," Evelyn McNulty, executive director at Romero House, a St. John, N.L.-based soup kitchen, told CTV National News.Charlebois said the main issue is food affordability.
“In 2020, Canada was ranked 18th in the world when it came to food affordability, according to the United Nations,” he said. “So we're not first, but we're not 100 and 50th, either.”
However, in 2021, Canada ranked 24th on that list.
“And if you asked me in 2022, we’re likely to drop even more in the rankings,” Charlebois said. “And that’s a concern – meaning wages aren’t going up [and] some people are being left behind. That’s the biggest concern.”
Read the complete report here:
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.