Ottawa, ON – Phillip Lawrence, Conservative Shadow Minister for International Development, released the following statement regarding UNICEF’s latest report on child well-being:
“After 11 years of Liberal policies have driven up the cost of living, children are now left to go hungry, with an ever-growing number falling below the poverty line. UNICEF has found that nearly 1 in 5 Canadian children now live in poverty, a number that has more than doubled since 2020, according to Statistics Canada.
“That ranks Canada at 26th out of 42 wealthy nations on child poverty. But the numbers get even worse as 30.8 per cent of children under 18 – almost 2.4 million – are now living in food-insecure households, and the number of children in severely food-insecure households has doubled to over half a million.
“With the price of groceries still rising 4.3 per cent in May – the 16th consecutive month of food inflation outpacing headline inflation year-over-year – more and more families are struggling to stock their fridges. Last month, United Way found that 20 percent of Canadians reported that all the food in their home was eaten, and they didn’t have the money to buy more.
“That’s pushed one-tenth of Torontonians to become food bank clients as food banks across Canada saw 2.2 million visits in a single month. Shockingly, children now make up one-third of food bank clients, according to Food Banks Canada. Higher food prices mean parents are having to choose between putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their child’s head.
“Over a decade of Liberal spending has done nothing but fuel ever-higher inflation, while Liberal taxes added to the cost of gas, groceries and transportation. Instead of offering families relief, the Liberals created more bureaucracy by building new programs that add more to the deficit and debt.
“Canadians are experiencing the results with the highest food inflation, housing costs and household debt in the G7 and the only country in the G20 in a recession. It’s time to reverse their policies that have driven up the cost of living to restore a Canada that is affordable at home, strong at home and growing at home.”