N.B. has second-highest rate of food insecurity of 10 provinces
Fredericton food bank consistently setting new all-time records for demand
Only Prince Edward Island exceeded New Brunswick when it came to overall food insecurity, according to the 2022 report by Proof, a research team that investigates and publishes annual reports on food insecurity.
The team uses three definitions to describe food insecurity:
- Moderate: "Compromise in quality and/or quantity of food due to a lack of money for food."
- Marginal: "Worry about running out of food and/or limited food selection due to a lack of money for food."
- Severe: "Miss meals, reduce food intake, and at the most extreme go day(s) without food."
Alex Boyd, CEO of Greener Village, a food bank in Fredericton, said the numbers reflect what they're seeing on the ground.
"The last full-month stat that we have was significantly higher than any month we've ever seen in history," said Boyd. "So it's not surprising to me that those numbers are coming out in the report."
Alex
Boyd with some of the food donated to Greener Village in Fredericton.
He said food banks are continuing to see a rise in demand. (Submitted by Alex Boyd)
That full-month statistic was 40 per cent higher than the same month last year, so Boyd predicts next year's report on food security will be "probably more grim."
"The situation that we're seeing on the ground is significantly worse than 2022, and 2022 was significantly worse than 2021. So we're basically just seeing continual increases to the demand that food banks are facing."
Boyd said the depth of the deprivation is critical.
"We're not talking about some people who are skipping the odd meal. We have a potential starvation dilemma in Canada," he said.
New Brunswick had the highest percentage of people living in 'moderate' food insecurity of any Canadian province. (Proof report)
Based on statistics collected by Greener Village, Boyd said one in five clients has "a net negative income before they make any consideration for food whatsoever."
Atlantic provinces have highest rate of insecurity
According to the report, the Atlantic provinces had the highest rate of individuals living in food-insecure households in 2022 — 23.6 per cent in P.E.I., 22.7 per cent in New Brunswick, 22.5 per cent in Newfoundland and Labrador, and 22 per cent in Nova Scotia.
"During the time of measurement, these provinces were experiencing especially high rates of inflation and unemployment," states the report.
"Previous research has found that higher unemployment rates are associated with higher provincial food insecurity. The relationship between rising food insecurity and the high rates of inflation and unemployment during this time warrant further study."
Household food insecurity increased last year by 18 per cent over 2021. (Proof report)
According to the data compiled by Proof, based on data from Statistics Canada's 2021 Canadian Income Survey, 6.9 million people in the 10 provinces, including almost 1.8 million children, lived in a food-insecure household last year.
The report said this is a "considerable increase from 2021 during a period of unprecedented inflation." In fact, household food insecurity increased last year by 18 per cent over 2021.
"The persistently high prevalence of household food insecurity across Canada highlights the need for more effective, evidence-based policy responses by federal and provincial governments," stated the report, which was released earlier this month.
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Average Canadian house price rose to $716,000 in April — up by $100K since January
After tumbling for much of 2022, the average price has risen 4 months in a row
Pete Evans · CBC News · Posted: May 15, 2023 10:49 AM ADT
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/crea-housing-data-1.6843592
Average Canadian house price rose to $716,000 in April — up by $100K since January
After tumbling for much of 2022, the average price has risen 4 months in a row
After plunging due to interest rate hikes throughout last year, the average price of a Canadian resale home has now increased for four months in a row, new numbers showed Monday.
The Canadian Real Estate Association said Monday that the average selling price of a home that sold on its MLS system in April went for $716,000. That's the fourth monthly increase in a row, and it marks a collective increase of more than $100,000 since the start of the year.
After peaking at just over $816,000 in February 2022 — right before the Bank of Canada began its aggressive campaign of rate hikes — Canada's housing market went ice cold for much of last year, as drastically higher mortgage rates made it more expensive to finance the purchase of a home.
Average prices bottomed out a few months later, at just under $630,000 in July.
But after moving essentially sideways until the start of 2023, the market has seemingly resumed its upward momentum ever since.
WATCH | Could empty office buildings could be the fix to Canada's housing crisis?
Much of the rebound stems from an uptick in sales in the Greater Toronto Area and B.C.'s Lower Mainland, two parts of the country that saw both the biggest gains during the early days of COVID-19, and also the largest drawdown once rates went up.
If numbers from those two markets are stripped out, the national average price drops by more than $144,000, to an average house price of $572,000 in places that are not Toronto or Vancouver.
CREA, which represents more than 100,000 realtors across the country, says the number of homes that sold during the month increased by 11 per cent from March's level to 44,059, and it's now back up to its highest level since last June. But it's still almost 20 per cent below what it was during the feverish market of this time last year.
"Home sales continue to bounce back (with some force) from the multi-decade low observed at the beginning of the year," TD Bank economist Rishi Sondhi said. "Support has come from solid job markets, lower interest rates and improving buyer psychology from a central bank that's on pause [but] affordability remains significantly strained [and] subdued supply is probably playing an even larger role in pushing prices higher."
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