Back to the Premier: Today, food banks across Niagara are hosting a press conference raising red flags. They need help. Month over month, up to 10% of St. Catharines’s population has used a food bank, while usage has doubled since last year. Why? Low wage jobs, high rent and social assistance rates, all while grocery stores are gouging families.

Speaker, will this government provide cost-of-living help to families so they do not have to keep turning to the food banks, and review policies that are contributing to driving more people to food banks?

Speaker, as we approach the holiday season and the final weeks of the year, it is particularly concerning that the Feed Ontario Hunger Report shows skyrocketing food bank use, including a 64% increase in first-time visits. Overall, 587,103 adults and children accessed a food bank in Ontario between April 1, 2021, and March 31, 2022. That’s an increase of 15%, and just this week, Canadian food experts projected food prices will rise 5% to 7% in the first half of 2023.

So it’s clear that things are not getting easier for families. While the Premier and his government admit that stubborn inflation and a lack of affordable housing are impacting Ontarians, there is inaction in leaving the province’s most vulnerable out in the cold, and they are hungry.

Speaker, my question to the Premier: With the Christmas holiday fast approaching and the price of groceries for a family of four going up by over $1,000, what is the government’s plan to address these rising costs? And—like so many families in my riding of Scarborough–Guildwood—why is it that this government is letting families depend on food banks so heavily?

Last week, I met with residents in my riding of Scarborough–Guildwood after they reached out to me for help, and what I heard, Speaker, was heartbreaking. Kamala told me that while there was a 5% increase for ODSP, it does not come close to a livable income when she faces soaring inflation and when rates were frozen for so long, since 2018.

Theresa explained to me that her main source of stress each month is getting groceries, because the rate increase doesn’t apply to OW recipients. In fact, she told me that she spends hours lining up at the food bank to make ends meet. She pointed out that many OW recipients are people with disabilities trying to access ODSP and forced to live on $733 a month.

Speaker, will the government preserve the $100 work-related benefit and will they provide a similar rate increase for people on OW, as they have done for ODSP?