Canada is in the grips of a deepening food-insecurity crisis — one that food banks cannot solve and elected officials can no longer afford to ignore.

The inability to obtain enough food for a nutritious diet or the uncertainty of being able to do so has reached a record high.

New data shows that nearly 10 million Canadians — about one in four — lived in a food-insecure household in 2024, a 15 per cent jump from the previous year. Among them, 2.6 million people experienced severe food insecurity, that is, they reduced how much they ate, skipped meals or went days without eating. One in three children was affected by food insecurity in some way.

The situation was most severe in Nunavut, where 58.1 per cent of residents lived in food-insecure households due to the territory’s remoteness, high cost of groceries shipped from the south and socioeconomic factors. Among the 10 provinces, Alberta reported the highest rate at 30.9 per cent, followed closely by Saskatchewan at 30.6 per cent and Newfoundland and Labrador at 30 per cent.

The chronic failure to pass social legislation

© IRPP - Policy Options