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Government Must Empower Communities – Not Replace Them!
Scarborough Centre has an opportunity to make better use of existing public resources, create opportunities for students, support affordable access to fresh food, and strengthen the role of families and local businesses – without expanding government into areas where others are better positioned to lead.
Food Prices Too High? Government Gets Some of the Credit.
Limited Competition: Canada's food market operates as a tight oligopoly, dominated by five major companies that control 75% of Canada's grocery and food market: Loblaw, Metro, Empire (Sobeys), Walmart, and Costco. These companies regularly engage in government lobbying in Canada and have historically received public funds and government subsidies. For example, between 2019 and 2023, the federal government provided approximately $26 million in public funds to Loblaw and Costco for new, energy-efficient freezers and refrigerators.*
Government determines the winners and losers in the market in every industry - not just food.** With land use zoning and re-zoning, government grants for preferred players, and selectively applied regulations, inspections, and licensing, the independent businesses have been squeezed out of the marketplace, resulting in declining competition, declining choices for consumers, and increasing retail prices.
Policy Failures: Canada holds the highest food inflation rate in the G7. While some of this pressure reflects global forces like climate volatility and supply disruptions, much of the burden is driven by government policies. Interprovincial trade barriers, regulations, inefficient logistics and infrastructure, especially poor and substandard rail & road transportation, and rising compliance costs continue to drive up the cost of getting food from farm to table.
We must limit government interference in the marketplace.
* New freezers, refrigerators, and air conditioners have transitioned from non-toxic and non-flammable refrigerants to flammable and/or toxic refrigerants. "Mildly flammable" is still flammable. To save the ozone layer, we risk burning down our homes.
** Wind Mobile founder, Naguib Sawiris, says he will never again consider investing in Canada. "The incumbents have enough muscle to prevent real competition in the market, and my advise for any foreign investors is not to waste their time investing in Canada."
Sources:
NDP slams Liberals for giving $26M to Costco, Loblaw for energy-efficient appliances
Canada's got a grocery competition problem. Are local food hubs the answer?
Egyptian telecom investor Naguib Sawiris 'finished with Canada,' plans to spend money elsewhere
No City-Operated Grocery Stores!
In March 2026, Toronto City Council approved a pilot program to establish four city-owned, non-profit grocery stores across the city. The initiative is intended to provide affordable staple foods in neighbourhoods that have limited access to full-service grocery stores.
How effective will this initiative be at solving food insecurity in Toronto? Many economists and food policy experts argue that the initiative will likely face challenges in achieving its goals.
Furthermore, the City of Toronto has failed to demonstrate competence in its mandated areas – maintaining required municipal infrastructure, services, and budgets. I have no confidence in the City meeting required health, maintenance, and sanitation standards in the operation of any food enterprise. Let's not forget TCHC. Toronto's housing operation receives funding from all levels of government and still has a repair backlog. Reminder: public housing does not have a property tax expense.
Municipal government should stay out of the grocery business. City-operated grocery stores will be more costly for Toronto taxpayers who will be required to subsidize them. Shifting the cost of groceries to taxpayers does not make groceries cheaper. It unfairly burdens some while giving privileges and entitlements to others. NO THANKS.
Sources:
Toronto may have bitten off more than it can chew with city-run grocery plan: experts
Government Grocery Stores Won’t Fix Food Affordability in Canada
The Feeding of Children is a Parental Responsibility, not a Municipal One
The City of Toronto spends $32 million annually to feed school children. This municipal allocation reflects an 80% funding boost introduced under Mayor Olivia Chow's administration.
The Federal Government provides funds (Canada Child Benefit) to low-income parents for the care of children under 18 years of age. That "care" includes the provision of food and shelter.
Think twice before relinquishing your parental responsibilities to others.
It is not the City's responsibility to feed children or adults or to fund their feeding. Nor is it the City's role to impart or promote any cultural or traditional dietary preferences or to suppress any cultural dietary traditions through the provision of meals.
Feeding the poor has traditionally been assumed by charities that have been granted tax-exempt status and the privilege of issuing tax-deductible donation receipts to their private donors precisely for such initiatives. These charities often represent and understand the unique cultural and dietary traditions of the ethnic communities of our city.
Sources:
Toronto School Food Program Expands to 77 New Schools and 27,000 More Students
Scarborough Centre: The Meadoway and the Agriway
Urban Farming in the Gatineau Hydro Corridor
Efforts to dedicate the 90-acre Hydro Corridor to nature, to prevent the expansion of garden plots rented and worked by apartment dwellers desiring fresh fruits and vegetables, to eliminate the potential for urban food production, with funding from the Weston Family Foundation, are lofty goals when Torontonians are feeling the pressure of food prices.
Perhaps a compromise would demonstrate at least an acknowledgement that benefit is derived from agriculture. Allocate 40% of the Meadoway, the flat, arable land east of Victoria Park, to large-scale urban farming for the benefit of local residents and the students that would plant, harvest, and sell the fresh produce on site at affordable prices (cost + 10%).
Co-ordinate with Centennial College (tractors), UofT Scarborough (Feeding City Lab), and Winston Churchill C.I., opportunities for youth to learn about sustainable farming practices, pesticide-free organic farming, and maintenance and operation of farming equipment in the delivery of affordable, fresh produce to the residents of Scarborough Centre.
Best of all, the location offers direct market access with no shipping costs or transportation delays.
A charitable Weston Family would not hesitate to reciprocate taxpayer generosity that funded refrigeration for Loblaw stores.
Photo: The Globe and Mail (April 11, 2018)
Photo: Metroscapes (June 29, 2019)
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