Anxiety over food inflation high in Manitoba as premier vows to study high costs

Manitobans are changing their shopping and eating habits due to grocery price inflation. Jeff Keele reports.

Manitobans are increasingly becoming anxious about food costs, as the premier pledging to study ways to help residents save money on groceries.

Chuck Jones is at a grocery store paying for his groceries and doesn’t hold back when asked about the price of food.

“It’s insane, absolutely insane,” he said.

Fellow shopper Debbie Solvason agreed the cost of food has spiked.

“Too steep, especially for seniors on a fixed income,” said Solvason.

The shoppers say being able to afford groceries is always on their minds.

“It’s the one thing since COVID that I have to think the most about,” said Solvason.

“You have to really be careful and look for specials, things on deals, and I shop around; I move from store to store,” said Jones.

They’re not alone.

A new report from Dalhousie University shows food affordability remains a huge concern, with a majority of Canadians changing how they shop, cook and eat to cope with high prices. The report says Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba show the highest levels of financial strain.

“Manitoba would be a top-tier province when it comes to food inflation vulnerability and anxiety,” said Sylvain Charlebois, the director of the Agri Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University.

The report comes the same week Premier Wab Kinew said his government will take a deeper dive into costs. His throne speech Tuesday promised a study to try and find ways to help people save money on groceries.

“My hope is that we’re going to take this study to understand what is driving grocery prices in Manitoba so that we could come back to you in the spring budget with some concrete steps to help you with the cost of living,” Kinew said.

Charlebois says there are things provinces can do to lower prices, like cutting the sales tax from everything we eat.

He also says eliminating interprovincial trade barriers on food would go a long way. Charlebois says the lab did calculations.

“The average Canadian could save up to $300 a year and right now it matters a lot,” he said.