The Food Professor- Since tariffs were introduced on both sides of the border in March, U.S. food inflation has continued to decline — while Canada’s has nearly tripled.
Tripled.
“Canada’s food inflation problem isn’t just imported — it’s engineered. Tariffs, trade missteps, and performative politics have all played a role. It’s time for Ottawa to stop blaming global forces and start owning the domestic decisions driving up our grocery bills.”
How Ottawa Made Your Groceries More Expensive
It was expected, but still jarring. In April, food inflation in Canada surged to 3.8% — a full 2.1 percentage points above the national inflation rate, and nearly double the U.S. rate of 2.0%. Once again, food is the primary driver behind Canada’s headline inflation, amplifying affordability concerns from coast to coast.
Behind that 3.8% figure lie significant increases across key food categories. Meat prices climbed 5.8% year-over-year, with beef leading the pack at a staggering 16.5%. Egg prices rose 3.9%, while fresh fruit and vegetable prices increased by 5.0% and 3.7%, respectively. These aren’t anomalies. They reflect underlying cost pressures exacerbated by recent shifts in trade policy and supply chain strategy.
Since March, when both Canada and the United States implemented a new round of tariffs, the divergence in outcomes has been striking. U.S. food inflation has continued to cool, while Canada’s has nearly tripled over the same period.
Tripled.
In two integrated economies, this growing disparity should raise red flags.
The root causes are increasingly evident. Ottawa’s earlier decision to implement counter-tariffs disrupted long-standing North American procurement systems. In response, Canadian grocers began pivoting away from U.S. suppliers — particularly in categories like fresh produce and frozen foods — and turned to costlier or less efficient alternatives. The results are now showing up on the grocery bill.
Fortunately, that policy direction has changed. According to a recent report from Oxford Economics, Prime Minister @MarkJCarney quietly eliminated many of the counter-tariffs that had been inflating food costs. The decision, while politically delicate, was economically sound — and long overdue. Easing those restrictions is already beginning to relieve pressure along the supply chain. Over time, this could help stabilize or even slow food price growth.
But broader context matters. Among G7 nations, Canada now has the second-highest food inflation rate — behind only Japan. Food price increases in France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States remain well below Canada’s. That begs the question: Why is food more expensive in Canada than in almost every other advanced economy?
The answer is not just international volatility or climate shocks. It’s also about domestic choices. Tariffs, protectionist procurement practices, and structurally limited trade flexibility have created a uniquely Canadian inflation narrative — one driven more by internal policy than by external pressures.
And Canada’s geoeconomic leverage simply doesn’t compare to that of the United States. Not even close. That’s why Carney’s reversal on food-related tariffs represents an opportunity — to reset policy priorities and adopt a more pragmatic, less performative approach to affordability.
Canadians should welcome this shift. But they also deserve transparency. Food inflation cannot be solely blamed on global disruptions or seasonal cycles. It’s time we acknowledged how much of it is homegrown.
Moving forward, federal and provincial governments must coordinate more effectively, communicate with greater clarity, and ensure that access to affordable, nutritious food remains a national priority.
Of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with patriotic consumerism. But “maplewashing” — the marketing of imported goods under misleading “Canadian” banners — is misleading and risks undermining public trust. Worse, it can distort markets and push prices even higher. Grocers should not abuse.
As for Ottawa, symbols like “Elbows Up” and “Canada’s Not For Sale” may have mobilized support during a volatile political moment, but they should never substitute for sound economic governance. Rhetoric can only go so far — and, in some cases, it blinds policymakers to the very consequences of their actions.
Canada’s food inflation story didn’t have to unfold this way. Now that we have an opportunity to correct course, let’s not waste it.
— Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is the Director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University and co-host of The Food Professor Podcast, brought to you by
@CaddleCanada
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“Food inflation tripled” is both true and misleading since going from 1%-ish to a little over 3% is not calamitous. There are enough scare headlines reporting the absence of parliament and the deeds of Carney’s cabal without adding food alarums.
Have you been to the store lately, Ken? Tripled sounds about right, maybe a little on the low side.
You should ask the maid next time you see her, bro. She’ll tell you.
Correct. Groceries are the highest I’ve ever seen and continue to climb.
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But Marx Carnage has redeemed our national honour by standing up to ‘Orange Man Bad.’ I those laid-off auto workers can take it, so can you.
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Replying to replies: A lot of food is priced up a lot. I’ve a bone to pick instead with the claim of food inflation at 3%+ which is the background of the original story.
3% every three months, maybe. Three percent annually?? No chance, it is much higher.
“In April, prices for food purchased from stores grew at a faster pace, increasing 3.8% year over year compared with 3.2% in March. Prices for food purchased from stores have been increasing at a faster rate than the all-items CPI for three consecutive months.”
That’s from Stats Canada.
It’s worse when you find out that in January 2025, Food inflation had dropped to $187 chained 2002 dollars, just to see it increase through the next 3 months ending in April to $194.5 chained 2002 dollars.
Well it seems many Canadians who buy food , were not hurting enough , so they voted the Liberals back in with the same Trudeau agenda expecting a change for the better.
Words are insufficient to describe Canadian stupidity.
It is more fear than stupidity, although there is that too. Words like puerile, infantile, spoiled brat, spineless, gelatinous coward at least help. Canada is a disgusting mockery of an actual nation, and deserves every awful thing to come.
Amen ..Peter!
1% compounded over 10 years is 10.46%. 3% compounded over 10 years is 34.39%.
Beef cost up 16%? Gee, I wonder how that happened? Did we all stop growing cows in Canada? Or is it more that every frigging thing from the land the hay is grown on to the fuel in the tractor that cuts it is taxed 47 different ways? And you have to install a sewage treatment plant on your farm instead of spreading the manure on the fields like you’re supposed to.
The prices are rising rising rising and at the same time farmers are going broke all over the place or quitting the business because its killing them, sounds like a government issue.
In the 1970s my dad said it wouldn’t be long before the syndicates owned all farms.
But only Liberal Party approved ones will be allowed to, probably for high sounding reasons like “food security”.
Remind me again of the name of the system that heaps huge tax and regulatory burdens on small and medium businesses, but only allows large businesses to exist in partnership with the government or the ruling party? Protesters can expect to be jailed and have their bank accounts frozen, and speech and travel limitations become common? Fa, fa, fa…geddaboutit, I must be mistaken (disclaimer for the policing agents reading this).
Careless wording.
Food prices did not triple.
The percentage change in food prices tripled.
So Conman Carney the business man, and the Liberal Party government of Canada are probably going to start importing massive quantities of filthy,disgusting,toxic food products from Chyna because that’ll bring down food inflation.
https://youtube.com/shorts/DH5vTMw_2A8?si=08nZmOD-n4zmEDtb
cbcpravda headline was inflation down to 1% , foregetting the previous 20% on the other 11 months .
will someone rid me of this treasonous priest .
Comrade…you need to follow the headlines and not waste time by looking at the world around you. CBC will tell you what you need to know. (Old Soviet era joke that, regrettably, fits Canada’s current situation perfectly).
The difference between Soviet peasants and Kanadians? Kanadians believe the BS they are spoon fed by the legacy media.
No one has mentioned the carbon tax. It is still gouging all of the upstream operators. It becomes an operating cost to them. Business usually mark up their goods based on their cost at the shipping dock. So the tax is actually greater in the hands of the end customer. Is it any wonder we have massive inflation.
Interesting, CP (posted on BNN) ran a story that inflation was down in Canada during April because of, guess what, the elimination of the consumer carbon tax: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/economics/2025/05/20/inflation-slows-sharply-to-17-in-april-as-consumer-carbon-price-ends/
Remember when the smart people told us that the carbon tax didn’t cause inflation (over and over, ad nauseum)? I am so glad the Liberals tell the truth all the time. What would we do if they lied their way into another election win? That would be calamitous.
Anyway, I live near Bancouber but was in Tronno on the weekend. Gas in Tronno was 128.9. Gas by my house this morning was 177.9, pretty close to where it was when The Great Marx himself, with flourish, I might add, eliminated the hated carbon tax once and for all for the peasants.
Down but not out
Remember the goal. For communism to succeed, everything that exists currently must be destroyed, or Utopia cannot arrive. And Pierre, Justin, and Carney were/ are all communists. So is the WEF. This is deliberate not accidental.
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“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped.”
George Orwell, 1984
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One of the fastest ways to make food more affordable would be the destruction of supply management. Of course, we can’t have that since La Belle Province commands 50% of the industrial milk quota while having less that 25% of the populations.
The best possible outcome would be for POTUS to demand immediate and full access to previously closed dairy and poultry. Quebec would go absolutely apesh!t. Then, God willing, they can f@ck right off. Perhaps the only chance for canaduh to redeem itself
No problem, but they have to put their TRQs and $30 billion in farm subsidies on the table.
Ah yes! Should be no problem since we hold all the cards
I’m pretty sure that’s coming. Canada’s dairy cartels have been a sore spot in US-Canada agri-trade for a long time.
I don’t what the claim “US food inflation continues to decline” is based on, but the opposite appears to be true. See the table at the bottom of this link:
https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/food-inflation-in-the-united-states/#google_vignette
The most likely culprit: buy anything but USA. I’ve seen plenty of USA fruits and veggies spoil on grocery shelves due to no demand.
Haven’t seen any of that in these parts. I guess our locals are smart enough to make the distinction between value and virtue-signalling.
Food prices are the poster-boy for why Canada is a Land of Losers.
Government “stewardship” (interference) ruins everything and in the last 50 years, that’s what these neo-Marxist c*nts have done.
We should all be three, four times wealthier and the government(s) 5 times smaller with ZERO debt.
Imagine the price of stuff with our dollar at 2X USD.
Imagine the foreign investment numbers.
Imagine all the small-minded c*nts who will argue otherwise.
go to Germany for a better estimate of food prices. about half the price of here in Canaduh and better stuff by far.
In 1967 Canada had a standard of living ranked 3rd in the world behind Switzerland and the USA.
Today we’re ranked 17th.
Think the country is working?
The question is rhetorical
Marx Carnage wants to make us 20th by year end. Bigger numbers, you see.
https://m3.gab.com/media_attachments/1d/8f/f8/1d8ff8deb426b9d682cebc48b6676665.jpg
It’s working for some, just not us soon-to-be prols.
“I’ve seen plenty of USA fruits and veggies spoil on grocery shelves due to no demand.”
Oranges are bad man.
I do not understand why people in the West, especially, but not only, in the Anglosphere, do not wonder why they are all suffering the same results from the same policies. It’s as if there was a deliberate policy or something.
It’s just idiots voting idioticly being stunned that actions can have consequences. “Orange Man bad” was seen as more important than the Gliberal’s epic war on private success and keeping Quebec’s boot on the throat of the national economy.
Millionaire Marx Carney is well fed on the finest foods his chef prepares for him.
And that’s all that matters to voters in this place, let’em starve, go broke, whatever…
I think more of the food inflation problem is that it isn’t just 3% last month, it’s 3% after having gone up considerably in the past few years while wages haven’t nearly kept up, and there was an X/Twitter item yesterday saying Loblaws/Sobeys is sitting on some price increases soon to come. It’s the 3% after many people are facing food insecurity already, having been pushed to the edge, and now it’s up another bit.
It’s not “a bit” … it’s more of the icing on the cake, if you remember what cake used to be like…
The #Libranos have no idea of what life without cake is like.
The Turkeys who voted for Christmas are realizing what’s on the menu.
L – Look for the most nutrient dense foods(unprocessed, least processed), make that your base for meals and add a few of the above ground vegetables and berries(some of which you can grow, if you have garden space).
Intermittent fasting protocols, improve health markedly, reduce risk of cancer, and mimic the
food intake schedule, that humans evolution adapted us, too. Reduce metabolic syndrome,
type 2 diabetes, obesity and the taxes required to treat chronic diseases will drop dramatically.
In other words, return to the way our ancestors up to the 1970s ate. Getting the fed. Leviathan
off our back will free up much income and allow expanded economic productivity, and cultural renewal.
If the urban easterners want to wallow in Trump Derangement Syndrome, Panic-demics and be led around by the Legacy Media, in modern versions of Sodom and Gomorrah; well, fire and pillars of salt are regenerative. So be it. Stay Calm and Defend Free Speech.
One way or another, Canadians soon be eating bugs.