(Courtesy: @liifewithtashh/ TikTok)
Canada’s food prices continue to be an ongoing issue faced by residents across the country and people are finding themselves in desperate measures.
Lack of affordability when it comes to grocery prices continues to affect the average Canadian, and a woman took to social media to share that she had to get creative in order to save money.
Canadian content creator Tasha B., made a video explaining that she had to make a cheap meal out of something she doesn’t usually eat, because she could not afford to buy lunch at work anymore and grocery prices are just too costly.
“I just spent $85 on about five grocery items last night. We are definitely not buying lunch today at work, and we are having tuna. One thing about me, I absolutely hate tuna,” she said in the video.
She shows that she had to sacrifice buying $20 lunches and opt in to making something enjoyable with tuna only because it’s a much cheaper option.
“I know things are bad but $85 for five things is not right,” a user said in the comments to which Tasha B. replied that she had been shopping at the Canadian supermarket chain, Food Basics.
The Brandon Gonez Show asked Canadians to weigh in on how they are currently navigating high food prices right now.
“Well, I definitely don’t eat out anymore because it’s way too expensive, and groceries are already super expensive, so I kind of just prioritise. I’m somebody who loves food, but sometimes I kind of have to be like, ‘okay, food is just fuel for this week rather than pleasure’,” Karbon B. told The Brandon Gonez Show.
With busy schedules, it does get difficult to plan out daily meals, but to save a buck, many don’t have much of a choice.
“You do have to do a lot of meticulous meal planning to just understand how many meals are you gonna have during the week,” said Canadian local Sanik S.
Sylvain Charlebois, the director of the Agri Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University explained that packaging costs, a weakened Canadian dollar and rising energy costs are all contributing key factors on Canada’s high grocery prices.
“We’re expecting chicken prices to explode into summer unfortunately, and that’s a big problem. Tomatoes [and] cucumbers as well, which is why a lot of people are looking into gardening right now,” said Charlebois.
He suggests that people should turn to independent food stores and pace themselves by going to a farmer’s market at the end of the day to possibly seal a deal.
“Continue to discover new stores, independent stores. There are independent stores out there offering some really good deals, and so if you actually look around, you’ll be surprised that sometimes you can actually make good deals with independent grocers in particular,” he tells The Brandon Gonez Show.
According to the Canada’s Food Price Report, in 2026 the average Canadian family of four could spend over $17,000 on food over the course of the year.
“It’s very sad, but at the same time, we just have to appreciate what we have, that’s what it is,” said local Danilo H. “I believe the government should step in. That’s the only resource that we have. The government, that could step in just a little bit for everyone.”
