Some Canadians are set to get a top up on the GST rebate that is aimed at tackling the price of groceries, Prime Minister Mark Carney said while announcing a slew of affordability measures in Ottawa on Monday.
The federal government is raising the existing GST credit amount by 25 per cent and providing a one-time payment “equivalent to 50 per cent of the GST credit this year,” Carney said, billing it as the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit.
He said that “will deliver hundreds of dollars more into the bank accounts of more than 12 million Canadians.”
However, he did not specify what the eligibility criteria for the rebate will be.
“Right now, a family of four receives about $1,100 a year with the existing GST credit. With the new Canada Groceries and Essentials benefit, that same family will receive up to $1,890 this year and about $1,400 a year for each of the next four years,” Carney said.
Ottawa is also launching a new National Food Security Strategy, which will include measures around unit label pricing, which Carney said will allow Canadians to “compare easily” between products.
“To address the root causes of food security, we’re developing a new national food security strategy that strengthens domestic food production, improves access to affordable, nutritious food,” he said.
The strategy will provide support for the Competition Bureau in “monitoring and enforcing competition in our market” and introduce measures to strengthen food security in Canada’s north.
The suite of measures also includes a $20 million top up for food banks.
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Carney added that Ottawa will invest $500 million in a fund to help food businesses expand and strengthen their supply chains.
The Conservative Party said the measures Carney announced will not solve Canada’s cost of living crisis.
“Conservatives have real solutions that could be adopted immediately: repeal the food inflation packaging tax, the industrial carbon tax and the fuel standard that will add 17 cents per litre of gas so that the food Canadians eat can get from field to fork affordably,” Conservative MPs Sandra Cobena and Vincent Ho said in a written statement.
Speaking shortly after Carney, Government House Leader Steve MacKinnon called on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to support the legislation for these measures when they come up for vote in the upcoming spring session of Parliament.
In a letter to Carney Saturday under the subject line “Time to turn rhetoric into reality,” Poilievre said he’s offering to help fast-track policies to enact trade deals, make groceries more affordable, fix the bail system and approve major projects.
“He has that chance with these brand new affordability measures that you heard the prime minister announce,” MacKinnon said Monday.
‘I can handle it,” Carney on Trump’s jibe
During the press conference, Carney was asked about U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat of 100 per cent tariffs on Canada and his jibe against Carney.
Trump referred to him as “Governor Carney” – a nickname Trump used for former prime minister Justin Trudeau.
“I think in this role, you get called a lot of things a lot of time. I’m not going to comment on every tweet or truth or comment from whoever,” Carney said.
“I can handle it.”
In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump threatened Canada with a 100 per cent tariff against all Canadian goods if it made a deal with China.
“If Governor Carney thinks he is going to make Canada a “Drop Off Port” for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken. China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life,” Trump said.
Canada-U.S. Trade and One Canadian Economy Minister Dominic LeBlanc recently said there was no pursuit of a free trade deal with China, calling the recent talks a resolution of specific tariff-related issues.
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