Our submission to the 2025 Federal Budget
July 31, 2025
Introduction
It may be hard to imagine that in a wealthy country like Canada one in four people experiences food insecurity—that is, inadequate access to food due to financial hardship.1 Rising living costs, precarious work, and an outdated social safety net are making it harder for millions to meet basic needs. In moderate or severe cases, people are skipping meals or compromising on food quality. Food insecurity harms health and violates the basic right to food.2 Canada must do better.
Trump’s trade policies, including tariffs on Canadian goods, continue to threaten Canada’s economy. Food and essential costs are rising, low-income households are hardest hit, and millions of jobs remain at risk. Strengthening income and social supports is more urgent than ever to protect people from worsening hardship.
Community Food Centres Canada works with 400+ local organizations nationwide to advance a vision where every community has a place for food that promotes health, belonging, and justice. Our partners witness daily how food insecurity affects people on low and fixed incomes.
That’s why we’re urging the government to adopt a food security target in this budget. To meet this target, we recommend income supports and improvements to the social safety net so that people experiencing food insecurity and poverty can live healthy, dignified lives.
Food insecurity is worsened by limited access to benefits due to systemic tax barriers, especially in Indigenous and remote communities. Disruptions to land-based food systems further limit access to traditional, culturally-appropriate foods. We call on the government to enhance equitable access to all federal benefits and to support Indigenous communities in accessing their traditional, land-based foods.
Context: Food Insecurity in Canada
Food insecurity is an escalating crisis in Canada demanding federal action. In 2024, nearly 10 million people—including 2.5 million children—experienced food insecurity, three-quarters of them at moderate or severe levels.1 This is the highest rate on record, up 15% from the previous year.
Food insecurity affects all aspects of life. It strains relationships, worsens health, and makes it harder to work or find employment.2 People often skip meals to afford rent, medication, or other basic needs.
Low income is the primary driver. Wages aren’t keeping pace with rising costs, and public supports are falling short. As a result:
- Most food-insecure households rely on employment.3
- Rates are highest among the working poor, one-parent families, and single adults.3
Food insecurity is an equity issue, disproportionately affecting communities facing systemic racism and discrimination:
- Indigenous, Black, and racialized people experience food insecurity rates two to three times the national average.1
- People with disabilities face double the rate of food insecurity compared to those without disabilities.4
For Indigenous peoples, food insecurity is rooted in a long history of colonialism and systemic discrimination. Land loss, chronic underfunding, and climate change threaten traditional food systems.5 Programs like Nutrition North often subsidize retailers over community harvesters, further perpetuating food insecurity. 6 Supporting Indigenous communities to access traditional, culturally-appropriate food is vital for reconciliation, justice, and lasting solutions.
Recommendations
1. Commit to reducing food insecurity by 50% and eliminating severe food insecurity by 2030
Canada monitors food insecurity through its Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS), but without any targets. We propose the above-mentioned national food security target to drive urgency, accountability, and focused action.
Consistent with the PRS and UN Sustainable Development Goals, we recommend using 2021 as the baseline and 2030 as the target year.
For equitable results, efforts to achieve this target must consider disproportionately impacted groups.
We urgently urge the government to establish an intersectoral working group—including people with lived experience and experts—to recommend policy options to meet this target.
2. Create dignified income supports for people aged 18 to 64 in households experiencing food insecurity and poverty
Income programs can significantly reduce food insecurity. Such reductions are well-documented in research on the Canada Child Benefit, Guaranteed Income Supplement, and Employment Insurance (EI).7
Adults aged 18 to 64 face high food insecurity and poverty rates but have limited income support.2 In today’s precarious job market and affordability crisis, employment alone is often not enough.2
We recommend two policy proposals to support this demographic:
Policy Proposal 1: Transform the GST/HST Credit into a Groceries and Essentials Benefit (GEB)
While helpful, the GST/HST credit is too modest for low-income households. We support the Affordability Action Council’s proposal to transform it into a permanent Groceries and Essentials Benefit to help offset the rising cost of basic needs for people under 65 with low or modest incomes.
Administered through the tax system, the GEB would provide monthly, income-tested benefits of up to:
- $150 (or $1800 annually, vs. $533 under the current GST/HST credit) per adult aged 18 to 64.
- $50 (capped at $600 annually) per child.
Monthly payments would offer more consistent support for basic needs.
The GEB would reach 9.7 million people—over half with low incomes. It would begin phasing out at an annual income of $24,824 (vs. $42,335 under the current GST/HST credit), allowing it to be targeted at those in most need. Implementing the GEB would incur an additional cost of $11 billion annually beyond the GST/HST credit.
Policy Proposal 2: Transform the Canada Workers Benefit into a Canada Working-Age Supplement
The Canada Workers Benefit (CWB) is the main federal income support for low-wage earners aged 18 to 64. Yet it excludes unemployed individuals and those facing barriers to work.8
Transforming the CWB into a Canada Working-Age Supplement (CWAS) would extend support to more people aged 18 to 64 facing food insecurity and poverty by removing the work requirement and raising the maximum earning limit.
This change would reach 3.1 million single adults in poverty (up from 1 million under the CWB) and reduce deep poverty by 9% to 39%, depending on province or territory. Implementing the CWAS would cost $8 billion annually.11
If full implementation isn’t feasible, a first step could be removing the $3000 earnings requirement while keeping other CWB parameters. This action would cost $1.03 billion and meaningfully support single adults, an often-overlooked group.
3. Expand the Canada Disability Benefit to reduce food insecurity and poverty among all people with disabilities
In Canada, one in eight people aged 15+ with disabilities lives with poverty, compared to one in 14 without disabilities.9
The newly-launched Canada Disability Benefit (CDB), offering up to $200 monthly for Disability Tax Credit (DTC) recipients, is too modest to ensure dignity. Access is also limited, as many people with disabilities struggle to qualify for the DTC.
We support calls by Disability Without Poverty and allied partners for this budget to:
- Detach CDB eligibility from the DTC to ensure greater financial security and economic inclusion for all people with disabilities.
- Reverse Bill C‑4’s reduction of the lowest personal income tax rate for the purpose of non‑refundable disability‑related tax credits to protect people with disabilities from increased economic hardship.
- Simplify and expand access to DTC—the program’s eligibility criteria exclude far too many people with disabilities living with poverty.
- Enhance the CDB to lift recipients above the poverty line—$200/month is inadequate to create equity for people with disabilities.
- Adopt a disability‑inclusion lens in all federal policymaking to ensure equity, access, and representation for people with disabilities.
4. Enhance Employment Insurance to support all workers
Canada’s EI program provides critical income support during times of involuntary unemployment. Research shows that EI reduces food insecurity risk by 23% among households with at least one person receiving EI.10
However, many in non-standard or precarious work don’t qualify due to the 420–700 hour threshold. Moreover, the average income replacement rate of 55% is among the lowest in the OECD, deepening cycles of poverty and food insecurity.
We recommend the government strengthen EI by:
- reducing the qualifying threshold to 300 hours for all workers
- expanding access to all workers, including:
- self-employed, gig, and migrant workers
- workers with multiple jobs who lose one
- those who voluntarily leave low-paying, precarious jobs to find better employment
- raising benefit rates to 85% for low-wage workers and 75% for all others.
5. Enhance equitable access to federal income and social programs
Filing taxes is essential to access federal income programs, yet many people face barriers such as language, technology, and system complexity. One in 10 Canadians do not file taxes, leaving over $2 billion in benefits unclaimed annually.11
Indigenous and racialized people, renters, people with disabilities, and single adults living alone are more likely to encounter systemic tax barriers.11
To improve equitable access to federal programs, the government must:
- provide clear income support information in multiple languages, formats, and forums
- simplify tax filing, including plain-language forms and implementing automatic filing for “simple” returns
- fund and consult populations facing barriers, and community groups supporting them, to develop culturally-appropriate tax navigation services
- apply a Race Equity Impact Assessment to all food security and poverty reduction programs to ensure they reach those most affected
6. Support Indigenous food sovereignty
Indigenous food sovereignty and food security require long-term, Indigenous-led solutions rooted in land, culture, self-determination, and intergenerational knowledge. We therefore support Indigenous partners and organizations in urging the government to:
- fully implement UNDRIP and work with Indigenous Nations, leaders, and organizations to affirm Indigenous jurisdiction over food systems, land, and climate-resilient strategies
- provide long-term, unrestricted funding for land-based food sovereignty work aligned with Indigenous governance and seasonal cycles
- fund permanent, salaried land-based positions, including hunters, foragers, and knowledge keepers
- reform food safety regulations to enable Indigenous-led standards and support traditional practices.
References
1. Statistics Canada. (2025, May 1). Canadian Income Survey, 2023. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/250501/dq250501b-eng.htm
2. Community Food Centres Canada. (2023). Sounding the alarm: The need to invest in working-age single adults. Community Food Centres Canada. https://cfccanada.ca/CFCC/media/assets/CFCC-SoundingTheAlarm.pdf
3. Li, T., St-Germain, A.-A. F., & Tarasuk, V. (2023). Household food insecurity in Canada 2022. https://proof.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Household-Food-Insecurity-in-Canada-2022-PROOF.pdf
4. Gupta, S., Fernandes, D., Aitken, N., & Greenberg, L. (2024). Household food insecurity among persons with disabilities in Canada: Findings from the 2021 Canadian Income Survey (Health Reports) [Research]. Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-003-x/2024008/article/00002-eng.htm
5. Malli, A., Monteith, H., Hiscock, E. C., Smith, E. V., Fairman, K., Galloway, T., & Mashford-Pringle, A. (2023). Impacts of colonization on Indigenous food systems in Canada and the United States: A scoping review. BMC Public Health, 23(1), 2105. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16997-7
6. Galloway, T., & Li, N. (2023). Pass-through of subsidies to prices under limited competition: Evidence from Canada’s Nutrition North program. Journal of Public Economics, 225, 104971. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2023.104971
7. Research to Identify Policy Options to Reduce Food Insecurity (PROOF). (n.d.). What can be done to reduce food insecurity in Canada? PROOF. Retrieved December 19, 2023, from https://proof.utoronto.ca/food-insecurity/what-can-be-done-to-reduce-food-insecurity-in-canada/
8. Kapoor, G. T., Tabbara, M., Hanley, S., & McNicoll, S. (2022). How to reduce the depth of single adult poverty in Canada: Proposal for a Canada Working-Age Supplement. https://maytree.com/wp-content/uploads/canada-working-age-supplement-report.pdf
9. Statistics Canada. (2023). Poverty and low-income statistics by disability status. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1110009001
10. Men, F., & Tarasuk, V. (2023). Employment Insurance may mitigate impact of unemployment on food security: Analysis on a propensity-score matched sample from the Canadian Income Survey. Preventive Medicine, 169, 107475. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2023.107475
11. Stapleton, J. (2018). A fortune left on the table: Why should low-income adults have to pass up government benefits? https://openpolicyontario.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2018/06/INFORMAL-A-Fortune-Left-R3.pdf
