Community Food Centres Canada

Advocacy & Issues 04/22/2025

Introduction

With less than two weeks to go before Canadians head to the polls on Monday, April 28, 2025, it's time to take a closer look at how the major political parties are addressing food security—particularly in relation to the key demands outlined in our #NoMoreScraps campaign.

In this blog, we assess the platforms of five of the largest federal parties: the Bloc Québécois, the Conservative Party of Canada, the Green Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, and the New Democratic Party (NDP).

While this review is not comprehensive—platforms have been released gradually throughout the campaign—we focus on how each party stacks up against our specific calls to action on food security. At this stage in the election, most major commitments appear to have been made public, offering a timely moment to evaluate party alignment with our priorities.

Summary Table

The three campaign demands of the #NoMoreScraps campaign are as follows:

Cut food insecurity in half by 2030.
Ensure everyone can afford the basics.
Create a Groceries and Essentials Benefit
- Create a Canada Working-Age Supplement
- Expand Canada Disability Benefit
- Enhance Employment Insurance
Uphold Indigenous food sovereignty.

The table below indicates whether each political party’s platform includes any elements of our campaign demands—either explicitly or by reasonable inference. A blank cell indicates that, as of now, the party has not made any public commitments related to that specific demand.

Campaign demand	The Bloc	Conservatives	Greens	Liberals	NDP
Cutting food insecurity in half by 2030
Ensuring everyone can afford the basics
Transform the current GST/HST Credit into an enhanced Groceries and Essentials Benefit	✔				✔
Transform the current Canada Workers Benefit into an enhanced Canada Working-Age Supplement
Expand the Canada Disability Benefit			✔		✔
Enhance Employment Insurance	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Uphold Indigenous food sovereignty	✔		✔	✔	✔

Our overall take

Canada is facing a food insecurity crisis, one that is impacting at least 8.7 million people including 2.1 million children. This is not a marginal issue, but a national emergency that demands bold, systemic action. Yet in the lead-up to this election, none of the five major political parties have shown the political will to treat this issue with the seriousness it deserves. There is a lack of commitment to strengthening income and social programs that are well proven to move the dial on food insecurity.

As Canadians grapple with economic anxiety, growing hardship, and the alarming rise of food prices, we expect our elected officials to inspire hope and demonstrate care. It is often the case that political parties propose or implement policies based on their political values. Yet, food insecurity and poverty know no political bounds. The millions of Canadians currently experiencing food insecurity come from all walks of life. They want real action, not politics.

In the face of mounting hardship, political parties have chosen to respond with platforms that focus heavily on tax cuts—measures that do little to address the root causes of inequality. While such measures are often framed as a means to increase take-home pay—particularly for low- and middle-income families—they come at a significant cost: a reduction in government revenue at a time when public investment in social infrastructure is most needed. No party has actually offered a credible plan to offset these losses or safeguard the social safety net from erosion.

The absence of such assurances raises serious concerns about political priorities, and suggests a troubling willingness to gamble with the financial stability of the most vulnerable in our society. In this context, tax cuts risk functioning less as economic relief and more as a transfer of public wealth that disproportionately benefits the affluent. Tax cuts do little for those struggling the most.

Most parties have made substantial promises to grow the economy, boost employment, and build more houses to ensure an affordable cost of living for all Canadians. While commendable, these investments would take many years to reap benefits. Even if those benefits were achieved, economic investments are never alternatives to social safety net programs that provide much-needed support and hope for the most vulnerable members of our society. We need both.

And finally, invoking international declarations and national inquiries on Indigenous issues without concrete implementation plans is tantamount to high-sounding nothings. We’re concerned that none of the political parties are yet to clearly earmark Indigenous food sovereignty as a policy priority. Things like strengthening Indigenous traditional food systems like hunting, fishing, and gathering rights.

Fortunately for all political parties, there’s still a little more time until election day to revisit their platforms. We call on the parties to commit to implementing robust evidence-based solutions to food insecurity. And certainly, we urge all our partners, stakeholders, and Canadians to support candidates who indicate firmly and concretely their commitment to doing the difficult but critical work of tackling the root causes of food insecurity. No more delays. No more scraps!

Below is a more detailed list of all our campaign demands and how each party stacks up.

Campaign Demand 1: Cut food insecurity in half by 2030

Against the backdrop of skyrocketing food insecurity in Canada, we’re calling on electoral candidates to commit to setting a target to cut food insecurity by 50% by 2030. Setting this target would ensure urgency, accountability, and effective targeting of food insecurity-reducing interventions.

What have the major political parties pledged to do regarding this demand?