Food Bank of Waterloo Region ‘not surprised’ by failing poverty grade

The Food Bank of Waterloo Region needs help as demand continues to increase. CTV’s Colton Wiens has more.

The Poverty Report Card from Food Banks Canada is out, revealing minimal improvements in Ontario and giving the province an overall rating of D-minus.

According to the report, social assistance is insufficient to live on, homelessness is becoming normalized, and rent costs keep rising while tenant protections continue to erode. The report card, released Monday, shows slight improvements for Ontario in material deprivation but an overall failure regarding poverty reduction measures.

According to the report card, rates for Ontario Works — which provides money for food, shelter and other costs to people in financial need — have been frozen since 2018. It found 71 per cent of recipients say the benefits are insufficient.

Kim Wilhelm, CEO of The Food Bank of Waterloo Region, told CTV News she is not too surprised by the numbers, as the need for assistance in the community keeps growing.

“We are not doing enough to get people out of poverty. And so, what’s happening now in Waterloo Region, but right across the country, is food banks are being turned to for the solution. People are returning to food banks over and over and over again because, in short, they can’t make ends meet because we do not have the systems in place. We don’t have the policies in place in order to get people out of this cycle,” Wilhelm said. “In April alone, nearly 27,000 people accessed a hamper program, which resulted in more than 60,000 visits right here in Waterloo Region, which is the highest month on record.”

According to Wilhelm, there has been an over 205 per cent increase in food assistance rates since 2019.

“That tells us more than that it’s a temporary challenge. It’s a growing affordability crisis,” she said. “And at the same time, food assistance programs are being stretched to serve more people than ever before in their history. It can’t continue.”

The report also found homelessness in Ontario has grown nearly 8 per cent since 2024. About 85,000 people are unhoused in the province, and it is estimated that 23 per cent are youth and children. The report projects 300,000 people will be unhoused in Ontario by 2035 if no action is taken.

Wilhelm and other leaders from Canadian food bank groups are heading to Ottawa this week to call on the federal government for change.

“We want to make sure that our voices are heard. We want to speak to government officials and let them know the problems that we’re facing here. Because, as I said, this isn’t a problem that’s isolated in Waterloo Region. We are seeing pressures right across the country,” Wilhelm said. “Hopefully they hear us about what needs to change in order to get out of this cycle.”

The report also focused on rental unit rates in the province, showing that despite existing rent controls, average rents still climbed 54.5 per cent between 2014 and 2023. The report stated that increase is more than three times the legally permitted rate — a situation further challenged by the fact that any units built after 2018 have no rent-control protections at all.

Food Banks Canada made several recommendations for Ontario. The first is ending the eight-year Ontario Works rate freeze and increasing the rates to an inflation-adjusted value. It also recommends raising the monthly earnings exemption from $200 to $600.

“End the eight-year rate freeze and increase Ontario Works here in Ontario. We need to restore rates to an inflation-adjusted value, raise the monthly earnings exemption from $200 to $600, because the rate freeze has caused severe erosions of real income support, and it’s a key driver of housing instability,” Wilhelm said.

Another recommendation is to restore full rent-control coverage across all rental units, regardless of construction date.

The report also recommends introducing a new poverty-reduction strategy with clear, enforceable targets, arguing that the “absence of targets has contributed directly to rising poverty rates among children, single-parent families, and working-age adults.”

On a federal level, the report card suggests a reform to the Employment Insurance system, along with closing the cost-of-living gap in the Groceries and Essentials Benefit for Northern Canada. It would also like to see a national review of social assistance and federal transfers conducted.

The full Poverty Report Card can be found online: Poverty Report Card - Food Banks Canada