Inflation continues to affect grocery bills

Inflation continues to have an effect on everything, especially the price of food. Stats Canada says grocery bills climbed as the price increased by 9.9 per cent year over year. Trevor Lewington with Economic Development Lethbridge says the best way for people to save at the checkout is to shop for items locally and to shop for non-traditional brands.

“We are going to continue to see inflation for the rest of this year and into 2023, certainly well above so-called normal levels, so people should be planning for the fall, for the winter, be thinking ahead to things like Christmas so substituting for locally produced, locally available goods should be cheaper, again reducing that cost of transportation. Looking at discounted brands or other brands that are perhaps not so-called premium quality, looking at different price points, but it’s going to be a struggle. If people are already hurting today, it’s not going to get better for the few months, so people need to be thinking ahead for sure,” said Trevor Lewington, CEO of Economic Development Lethbridge.

Meanwhile, CPC Leadership Candidate Pierre Poilievre in a video posted to his Twitter page directed at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, says the average person is concerned about being able to afford food.

“In fact, there is a poll out Justin you might find interesting, about a quarter of Canadians are now borrowing money just for essentials like eating. Justin, can you imagine taking out a loan just to eat? Remember when you said you were borrowing money so that Canadians didn’t have to, well now Canadians are borrowing up a storm because they can’t afford the higher prices that you’ve imposed on them right? You know, it’s called inflation or Justin-inflation, I like to put your name in there because it gets your attention,” said CPC Leadership Candidate Pierre Poilievre.

Poilievre says inflation across Canada has caused food prices to jump by 10 per cent.