Yesterday, we brought you the key points of the Spring 2026 edition of the Canadian Food Sentiment Report. But the way Canadians are thinking about food and how that’s changing go way beyond the numbers. Dr Sylvain Charlebois offers his analysis…
Canada’s Food Guy
I’ve dubbed Charlebois ‘Canada’s Food Guy’. No one deserves the title more. It was he who started the professional, non-governmental, regular stats gathering and analysis of key food price data at Dal-housie University which produces the Canadian Food Price Report every year. And the Canadian Food Sentiment Index. The former tells the story of Canadians and their fight to afford food strictly from a numbers perspective. The latter attempts to explain the current state of our relationship with food and why they feel that way.
The doctor is IN
Charlebois has what may be the ultimate position from which to offer analysis on how Canadians feel about their food. He’s published a detailed ‘editorial’ on the new 2026 Sentiment Index in which he shares his insights.
“If we look at perceptions of inflation, the situation has improved. By Spring 2026, the share of Can-adians who believe food prices rose by more than 10% has dropped to 29.7 %, while expectations have stabilized,” he observes. “In that narrow sense, Canadians feel less alarmed. But feeling less alarmed is not the same as feeling better.”
Food still top-of-mind
“Food remains the top financial concern for Canadians, with 81.1% still identifying it as the expense that has increased the most, only slightly down from 84.1% in 2024. No other category comes close. This persistence tells us something critical: while inflation is moderating, affordability has not improved in any meaningful way.”
A grim picture
One look at household budgets reflects a grim picture. Canadians are still spending more for food than last year, ‘despite all efforts to cut back’. And at the same time, more Canadian families have fallen below the food ‘poverty line’. “The share of households spending more than $600 per month on groceries has risen to 20.6 %, reinforcing the steady upward drift in food costs.”
Struggling to compensate
Canadians are struggling to compensate for unrelenting rising food prices. “In Fall 2024, cost-cutting behaviours surged as households scrambled to respond to rising prices. Today, those behaviours have become normalized. According to the Index, 44.4 % of Canadians actively seek sales and dis-counts, while roughly 23% use coupons, 23 % shop at cheaper stores, and about 20 % cut back on premium foods such as meat or fresh produce.”
“This is no longer crisis behaviour—it is routine behaviour.”
Price takes precedence
Concern about food prices takes precedence over other, perhaps more important factors in the choices Canadians are making at the supermarket.
“[Affordability] has become overwhelmingly dominant. Today, 45.5 % of Canadians cite affordability as their top food priority, compared to 24.9 % for nutrition, and roughly 16 % for taste.”
‘Persistent stress’
“The evolution of the Canadian Food Sentiment Index […] tells a clear story. The acute phase of food inflation has passed. But it has been replaced by something more persistent: a prolonged period of affordability stress.”
A political issue
Charlebois insists high food prices is now a political issue: “Mark Carney may have inherited this problem, but nearly a year into his tenure, Canadians are still living with it.”
“Prices are still rising. Budgets are still stretched. And one in three Canadians is still struggling to afford food. That is not recovery. That is adaptation under constraint.”
My take
Charlebois’ conclusion: “The challenge is no longer volatility—it is persistence. Even moderate inflation, sustained over time, erodes purchasing power and forces difficult trade-offs that affect nutrition, health, and food security.”
I agree. And, since the food producers, manufacturers and retailers have shown they’re unwilling to do anything about it. The problem has migrated to the highest level – government. As I’ve said many times before, it’s time for the Government to take strong measures to bring food prices down, and keep them down.
There are two vectors on which this battle may be fought. The first is legislative – enacting tight reg-ulations and controls on food prices. That puts the supermarket cartel in the spotlight, but that’s where it should be. Bragging to shareholders about double-digit profits while millions of Canadians struggle to feed themselves is not only an absurd dichotomy, but a national disgrace.
The second is financial – creating a way for Canadians in need to access nutritious food, or money to pay for it. Food Banks are stretched to their limits and their efforts to serve those in need are failing. Other charities and supports are also crumbling under the pressure of ever-increasing need.
The eventual solution to high food prices will probably have to embody elements of both of those approaches. However, it pans out, the solution must be found and implemented without further delay.
“Canadians have shown they can adapt,” Charlebois observes. “But adaptation is not the same as resilience – and right now, that resilience is still being tested.”
~ Maggie J.