Food Affordability

Hello, neighbours,

Canadians everywhere are struggling with the rising cost of food, but here in our riding, the pressure is especially real. When you live in a rural and mountainous region, higher fuel costs, long transportation routes, and government red tape don’t just show up on a balance sheet—they show up on your grocery receipt. Families are paying more for the basics, seniors on fixed incomes are cutting back, and food banks across our communities are seeing record demand. For a region built on hard work, agriculture, and self-reliance, this is simply not acceptable.

Local farmers, ranchers, and food producers in the Columbia Kootenay Southern Rockies are doing everything they can to keep food affordable, yet they are being squeezed by inflationary taxes on fuel, fertilizer, and transportation, along with layers of federal regulation that drive up costs at every step. Those costs don’t disappear—they’re passed on to consumers. The result is higher grocery bills for families and less stability for the very people who grow and produce our food close to home.

Conservatives have a clear plan to increase food affordability by removing the multiple taxes on food, including:

· the industrial carbon tax on farm equipment, fertilizer, and food processors, that drives up the costs of producing food and are passed onto consumers,

· the fuel standards tax, which is seven cents a litre and rising to 17 cents a litre on farmers, truckers, and those who bring us our food

· the food packaging tax that will cost Canadians $1.3 billion

I will continue to fight for real change that takes the tax off food, boosts competition, and delivers a real plan to restore food affordability for families, seniors, and farmers right here in Columbia–Kootenay–Southern Rockies.

~Rob