Carney launches food security plan to lower prices, cut imports

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government rolled out a plan to address food security and affordability as the high cost of groceries continues to be a major pain point for Canadian consumers.

The strategy released Thursday earmarks $3.2 billion over 10 years to increase competition in the grocery sector, process more food domestically and grow the country’s capacity to produce fruits and vegetables year-round. The plan includes new spending as well as redirected funds.

It also marks another example of Carney’s ongoing effort to concentrate essential supply chains in Canada rather than having them cross the southern border, insulating Canadian consumers from the whims of the Trump administration and its tariff policies.

“A country that can’t feed itself or fuel itself or defend itself isn’t truly sovereign. It’s vulnerable to global shocks. It’s vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. It’s vulnerable to tariffs,” Carney said in a news conference on Thursday. “So to protect our sovereignty and truly take control of our future, we have to take control of our food system.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has hammered the Liberal governments of both Justin Trudeau and Carney over rising food prices, while the left-leaning New Democratic Party has been calling for public grocery stores and a crackdown on surveillance pricing.

Grocery prices in April were up 3.8 per cent from a year ago and 31 per cent higher than in April 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic first began.

Read MoreCarney’s strategy includes a $1 billion agri-food project finance fund to help small and medium-sized food processors expand, in an effort to process more food closer to where it’s grown in Canada.

“We grow things here, sell them to other countries who process them, then buy them back as final products,” the government said in its strategy outline. “This means higher prices for Canadians while creating jobs elsewhere.”

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It also earmarks $1 billion for food infrastructure, including food terminals and hubs, which the government says it will help independent grocers compete and give consumers the opportunity to buy directly from wholesalers and farmers.

The government says it also wants to reduce the country’s dependence on imported crops, setting aside $750 million for controlled environment agriculture to increase year-round production of fruits and vegetables in Canada.

Building on its recent pledge to tackle surveillance pricing, the Carney government says it will modernize the law to ensure Canadians’ personal information is used “responsibly and transparently.”

The government has set out key performance indicators for its plan, including beginning the construction of two new food terminals by the end of 2028 and increasing the proportion of local food sales by small and mid-sized producers by 25 per cent by 2030.

It also wants the country’s competition watchdog — which will see it funding grow — to increase the number of investigations it opens per year by 10 per cent, “resulting in close to $450 million per year in consumer savings,” the government said in the document.

— With assistance from Mario Baker Ramirez.