{"id":15389,"date":"2023-02-19T06:26:05","date_gmt":"2023-02-19T11:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/?p=15389"},"modified":"2023-03-14T06:29:33","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T10:29:33","slug":"the-disconnect-between-canadians-and-the-trudeau-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/?p=15389","title":{"rendered":"The disconnect between Canadians and the Trudeau government"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Niagara Independent, February 17, 2023 \u2013 <\/em>Increasingly our senior-most members of parliament in Ottawa are proving they are tone deaf to the cries of frustration and despair across the country. Each passing week there are examples of PM Justin Trudeau and his cabinet ministers seemingly blind to the financial anxieties many Canadians are shouldering at the moment. As they advance their policy agendas on Canadians, they do so at best \u201cunknowingly\u201d or at worst they could be called \u201cinsensitive.\u201d Whichever it is, the Trudeau government is appearing disconnected with the realities facing Canada\u2019s middle class \u2013 and those striving to join it.<\/p>\n

Many Canadians are presently facing a grim reality. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada has reported that many Canadians are borrowing money and taking from their savings to pay for living expenses \u2013 to pay for their groceries, home and day-to-day expenses. This week Blacklock\u2019s Reporter<\/i> made public the federal regulator\u2019s report, which describes the current state of Canadians \u201cas the worst of times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, nearly four in 10 (38 per cent) of Canadians borrow money \u2013 some using high-cost loans. A total of 48 per cent are using their savings just to cover living expenses. There are four in 10 (42 per cent) Canadians stressed, believing \u201cfinances control their life.\u201d<\/p>\n

This report coincides with a Consumer Debt Report released in January by the Canadian Counselling Society that revealed four in five Canadians (82 per cent) see spending on essential goods as the primary cause of their worsening finances. A vast majority of Canadians spend sleepless nights thinking about their finances, with six in 10 (63 per cent) planning this year to cut back on their expenses, especially on their food shopping.<\/p>\n

Consider a Stats Can release on Monday that reported a quarter of Canadians are unable to cover an unexpected emergency expense, and those most insecure are younger and racialized Canadians. That same day a bankruptcy trustee firm released its 2022 consumer insolvency numbers and reported millennials (aged 26 to 41) accounted for half of all bankruptcies. Young Canadians are buckling under the costs of soaring rents, heavy student-debt loads, and the rising cost of living.<\/p>\n

Canadians of all ages are impacted by the 11 per cent rise in the cost of food this past year. Food Banks Canada reports a record number of people using food banks across the country \u2013 up 35 per cent since pre-pandemic times. A downtown Toronto food bank reports a 48 per cent increase in 2022. In Saskatoon, it was reported that 20 per cent of Canadians are skipping meals. In BC, there was a survey that found University of Victoria students are resorting to dumpster diving and taking unused food from their employers to get by because they cannot afford to buy groceries.<\/p>\n

Last Friday the Prime Minister was at Algonquin College to talk with nursing students and one student had the courage to pose the following question (verbatim): \u201cI am in my last year of nursing and I have been working this whole pandemic in group homes and I work at three hospitals right now on top of my unpaid placement. And I am still using my credit card to pay for groceries. Why are groceries so expensive? I am eating cookies from the hospital sometimes because I can\u2019t afford lunch and I don\u2019t even get a break. I am eating on the go. It\u2019s just, I\u2019m wondering why it is so hard?\u201d<\/p>\n

PM Trudeau responded by saying, \u201cThe answer is you shouldn\u2019t find it this expensive. You shouldn\u2019t be squeezed this way. This is not the way it should be\u2026\u201d He talked about the pandemic and problems with supply chains that \u201cdrove up price of food, fuel and fertilizer.\u201d He mentioned that inflation is a global phenomenon \u2013 and that Canada is doing better than most. He also admitted that these things are \u201ccold comfort\u201d for someone who is having problems paying for their food.<\/p>\n

In his \u201ccold comfort\u201d reply, what Trudeau did not broach was how his government could be addressing issues surrounding Canadians\u2019 cost of living. He chose not to mention how his government\u2019s gross overspending \u2013 before, during and after the pandemic \u2013 fueled what the past-Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge has said is \u201ca Canada-made inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trudeau also chose not to mention the impact the government\u2019s carbon tax is having on the cost of everything <\/i>in Canada \u2013 including rising food prices due to the additional taxes on farmers producing food, on truckers transporting it, and on businesses preparing and retailing it. When he mentioned fertilizer, he skipped over what his new fertilizer emissions regulations are costing our farmers.<\/p>\n

But the PM\u2019s non-answers to the Algonquin College nursing student is indicative of the growing gap with reality being played out in the Nation\u2019s Capital between implementing the government\u2019s agenda and how it is directly impacting its citizens. In knowing Canadians\u2019 current stresses, how else can one rationalize the recent news from Ottawa?<\/p>\n