Submission to the Senate Standing Committee of National Finance Study on Bill S-233: The Potential for a Guaranteed Livable Basic

Given the concerns expressed the potential financial costs of a basic income program during the second reading of the bill, the study of this committee and proposed framework must also consider the potential savings from the health benefits, as well as the cost of continuing without evidence-based policy action on food insecurity. [...] SUMMARY The latest release of household food insecurity statistics from the Canadian Income Survey showed that in 2022, 6.9 million Canadians in the ten provinces (18.4%) lived in households with inadequate or insecure access to food due to a lack of money.1 The extraordinarily high rate of food insecurity is concerning because food insecurity takes a serious toll on the health of Canadians and on. [...] To date, funding for the expansion of food charity through the Ministry of Agriculture and Agri- Food has been the only federal intervention taken in the name of reducing food insecurity.2 These investments will not reduce food insecurity because food charity is unable to address the underlying problem of income inadequacy. [...] The questions used to determine a household’s food insecurity status ask about the experience of food deprivation over the past 12 months, ranging from worrying about running out of food and/or limiting food selection (marginal food insecurity), to compromising in quality and/or quantity of food (moderate food insecurity), to missing meals, reducing food intake and at the most extreme going day(s). [...] Prior to the systematic monitoring of food insecurity through national surveys and the popularization of the statistics, the main point of reference was food bank usage statistics, which we now know seriously understate the scale of the problem.