The surge in inflationary fever is producing its share of households suffering from food insecurity, an ever-increasing number of which come from those with incomes above the poverty line. Small portrait of progressive impoverishment.
Last week, Statistics Canada released the results of the Canadian Income Survey. We learned that the proportion of families experiencing food insecurity during the 12 months preceding the survey had increased from 16% in 2021 to 18% in 2022. Among the provinces and territories, the lowest rate (14 %) is observed in Quebec.
In the overall picture, 11% of families had an income below the poverty line, according to the measure of low income based on a market basket (MPB). They are the most vulnerable to food insecurity, with a rate more than twice as high as those living above this threshold (35% versus 16%).
This applies more to the poorest. In its analysis of social assistance programs published in May, the Quebec Observatory of Inequalities concluded that the social assistance programs in force in Quebec do not allow their recipients to have sufficient income to cover their basic needs. . We measured that the thresholds of the MBM, the low income measure (LIM), and the viable income measure (MRV) are all higher than the annual amounts of last resort benefits, both for a person only for a single-parent family or a couple with children.
The analysis arrives at the same conclusion by adding the amount of last resort assistance benefits to the other government transfers making up disposable income.
This parenthesis being said, the fact remains that in total, approximately 8 out of 10 families finding themselves in a situation of food insecurity had an income above the poverty line, underlines Statistics Canada. We are talking here about 2.3 million of the approximately 2.9 million families recorded.
Worse. The federal agency is careful to point out that the survey was conducted from January 16 to July 5, 2022. During this period, the year-over-year inflation rate increased from 1% in January 2021 to 4.8% in December 2021, and the annual food inflation rate increased from 1% to 5.2%. The consumer price index continued to increase to reach a peak of 8.1% in June 2022. For its part, the increase in the prices of food sold in stores allowed an increase of more than 10%. year over year in August, September and October 2022, peaking at 11.4% in September. Unheard of in over 40 years. Not to mention soaring housing costs.
Food banks under pressure
This deterioration was not without paving the way for a “dramatic” worsening of food insecurity in Quebec, resulting in “unprecedented” traffic in food banks, highlighted the CEO of the Banks. Quebec food industry, Martin Munger, in an interview with The Canadian Press (PC) published on October 25.
In just one year, the number of people who use its network of 1,300 community organizations has jumped 30% to reach 872,000 people in March 2023, according to the 2023 Hunger Report. This is a jump of 73% compared to the 2019 results. “Of the population of Quebec, one in ten people uses food banks to get food,” notes Mr. Munger with concern. The number of food baskets, for its part, has doubled in four years, going from 345,000 to 682,000. And the situation has deteriorated since the data was collected in March.
The Canadian picture would be similar, with a jump of 32% in the number of visits to a food bank in one year and 78.5% compared to March 2019.
And again, having a job cannot be a guarantee. In 2023, 18.5% of food bank users derived the majority of their income from employment, compared to 13.5% in 2019, adds the PC.
Unsustainable income
As additional information, we can add that the results of the analysis of the Observatoire québécois des inequalities mentioned previously are even more gloomy when we compare the disposable income of recipients to the measure of viable income, which establishes the income threshold considered necessary to get closer to a real exit from poverty. We are talking about a viable income making the demarcation between poverty and its absence, which takes into account in particular the presence of public services (mainly a public transport network), government transfers and credits and the cost of living , which differs from one locality to another.
Especially since the rise in the cost of living means that “the income necessary to achieve a standard of living free from poverty has increased more quickly than inflation”, has already underlined the Institute for Research and Information socio-economic. We can recall that the prices of everyday necessities, more heavily felt as we go down the income scale, show the largest increases in this long inflationary episode.