When Aurora Howden heard the new federal budget includes a grocery rebate cheque for low-income Canadians, the first thing that came to mind was she would be able to buy fresh fruit and vegetables for her 16-month-old son.

“It’s really hard to afford the healthier foods for him, so this will help me go that extra mile to make sure he eats healthier,” she said Wednesday.

The excitement quickly gave way to disappointment.

The one-time rebate, which is set to provide $2.5 billion across 11 million Canadians, will provide funding ranging from up to $467 for couples with two children, and up to $234 for single Canadians without children. Seniors are set to receive around $225.

Howden, a 24-year-old single mom and student, receives financial assistance from the province but inflation has only made it more difficult to survive. She said she relies on hamper programs to keep food on the table.

The announced federal funds aren’t nearly enough for how severe the need is: in her class, many students who also use income assistance programs are going to food banks, too, she said.

“It’s honestly kind of sad that the government has to give back for low-income families to be able to afford those things,” she said. “(Harvest Manitoba) does offer some vegetables in their hampers and some fruit… but those only last so long.”

Any money in people’s pockets, especially right now, is a good thing, Harvest Manitoba chief executive officer Vince Barletta said.

“When (some Manitobans) are going to the grocery store to buy groceries for the week, we’re talking about folks that are going there with $50 in their pocket,” he said.

“So those amounts of money, they may not seem large to to everyone in the community, but I can tell you that for people that are really living on low incomes and fixed incomes and government benefits, that those amounts of money are meaningful amounts of money.”

Food bank usage in Winnipeg has doubled since 2019, advocates say. Harvest’s 2022 report showed it was helping feed 90,000 people every month — 10,000 more than just a year prior.

One of every four people visiting such food banks has a job (a 50 per cent increase compared to 2021) and just under half of those work full-time. The numbers show a one-time payment is not going to be nearly enough to alleviate the impact of post-pandemic hardships and stubborn inflation, Barletta said.

“It’ll provide some one-time temporary relief, but we’re still seeing demand for food banks like never before,” he said. “We’ve got to get inflation down, and we’ve got to get more (provincial) supports to low-income folks so that can have more security over their food situation.”

At SEED (Supporting Employment and Economic Development) Winnipeg Inc., staff offer financial consulting, help accessing income benefits and tax credits, and money counseling, often for low-income clientele.

Co-director Louise Simbandumwe said Winnipeggers it serves often have financial troubles far beyond what a one-time payment could alleviate.

“We are seeing unprecedented numbers of people that are having a really hard time meeting their basic needs,” she said. “So we’re talking about food, shelter, housing, internet connectivity — the sorts of things that you need just to be part of society.”

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Both Harvest Manitoba and SEED offer programming meant to help low-income people access tax benefits. Simbandumwe said there have been times where people have come in without proper identification because they can’t afford to go through the process of getting a birth certificate.

Simbandumwe hopes to see fundamental change at the provincial level — increasing the Employment and Income Assistance budget, a universal basic income for households, and benefits evaluated according to inflation.

“I think everybody’s feeling the pinch right now, but the the individuals who are feeling it the most and are in dire straits are the people that are living on the lowest level of income,” she said.

“And I think there’s a real concern that people that are minimum-wage earners working, that things are becoming less and less affordable for them, and that those individuals are also going to be thrown into poverty.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press.

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