Low income families in Canada have less disposable income than ever | CCPA
www.policyalternatives.ca
Canadian households spent an average of $76,750 on goods and services in 2023, a substantial increase of 14.3 per cent over 2021. This boost in spending was largely driven by the surge in inflation (up 10.9 per cent) over this period which took the wind out of the sails of the post-pandemic recovery and hit low income…

While inflation has eased since 2022 and is now trending around two per cent annually, the actual cost of essentials hasn’t gone down. The overall price of the typical basket of goods and services for the average Canadian household rose by a hefty 17.4 per cent between 2019 and 2024. The increase was even higher for food (23.3 per cent), shelter (24.0 per cent) and transportation (21.6 per cent)—notably for gasoline (55.6 per cent).

Has mainstream media’s coverage of affordability issues or price-gouging (e.g., grocery stores) slowed or stopped?

Tropicana orange and other fruit juice used to come in 2L containers, about $3 or so. I was at a Loblaws-owned discount grocery store yesterday, and saw the container had shrunk even more, to 1.65L, from 1.75L at the time of my previous purchase. They were also selling it for $7.49 😳

My reactions were 1) what outrageous unchecked corporate greed, 2) mainstream media doesn’t cover this any more, and 3) companies seem so confident nowadays that they can do whatever they please

  • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
    18·
    1 month ago

    What’s talked about by out new PM at least is that wages are too low. That’s the other side of the problem. We tend to increase wages instead of decreasing prices because we don’t like deflation. That said for wages to go up we need the government to strengthen labour and I’m not sure that’s happening. At least not yet. Also I think your conclusions are correct.