GROCERIES AND ESSENTIALS BENEFIT: - Helping People with Low Incomes Afford Everyday Necessities - Create a new Groceries and Essentials Benefit

To ad- dress food insecurity, the Affordability Action Council recommends the federal government take the following action: Create a new Groceries and Essentials Benefit The federal government should restructure and expand the Goods and Services Tax/ Harmonized Sales Tax rebate and rename it the Groceries and Essentials Benefit. [...] In addition, at the insistence of the federal government, the CEOs of the top five grocery chains have presented plans to federal officials about how they plan to contain food prices. [...] For example, the change in the global price of oil between the beginning of 2021 and spring 2022, from US$40 to US$120 per barrel, is equivalent to a hypothetical increase in the carbon price to C$300 per tonne. [...] The Grocery Rebate was in addition to the federal gov- ernment’s one-time doubling of the GST credit in the June 2022-July 2023 benefit year, which was issued to help households most affected by inflation (for example, the benefit for a single mother with one child and $30,000 in net income went up to $1,160 from $773) (Department of Finance, 2022). [...] Create a new Groceries and Essentials Benefit The Affordability Action Council recommends that the federal government restructure and expand the existing GST/HST credit and rename it the Groceries and Essentials Benefit (see figure 3).