Canadian PM Carney unveils multibillion-dollar push to lower food costs

Carney has been under pressure from the opposition to lower prices of food and other essentials for lower-income people.Published On 26 Jan 2026Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced a multibillion-dollar package as part of a series of measures aimed at lowering the costs of food and other essentials for low-income families.On Monday, Carney announced a five-year 25 percent boost to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) credit that starts this year.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4The ‘discombobulator’: Did US use ‘secret weapon’ in Maduro abduction?list 2 of 4Hundreds of thousands without power as US winter storm starts to wind downlist 3 of 4EU probes Musk’s Grok AI feature over deepfakes of women, minorslist 4 of 4Lula, Trump discuss ‘Board of Peace’, agree to meet in Washington: Brazilend of listThe GST credit, which is being renamed the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit, will provide additional, significant support for more than 12 million Canadians, Carney said in a statement.The government will also provide a one-time top-up equivalent to a 50 percent increase this year to eligible residents.“We’re bringing in new measures to lower costs and make sure Canadians have the support they need now,” Carney said.The measures would cost the government 3.1 billion Canadian dollars ($2.26bn) in the first year and between 1.3 billion Canadian dollars ($950m) and 1.8 billion Canadian dollars ($1.3bn) in each of the following four years, he told reporters at a news conference, according to the Reuters news agency.While overall consumer price inflation in Canada has eased and came in at 2.4 percent for December, “food price inflation remains high due to global and domestic factors, including supply chain disruptions, higher US tariffs from the trade war and climate change/extreme weather”, Tony Stillo, director of Canada Economics at Oxford Economics, told Al Jazeera.The government is also setting aside 500 million Canadian dollars ($365m) from the Strategic Response Fund to help businesses address the costs of supply chain disruptions without passing those costs on to Canadians, and will create a 150 million Canadian dollar ($110m) Food Security Fund under the existing Regional Tariff Response Initiative for small and medium enterprises and the organisations that support them.Changing landscape“The global landscape is rapidly changing, leaving economies, businesses, and workers under a cloud of uncertainty. In response, Canada’s new government is focused on what we can control: building a stronger economy to make life more affordable for Canadians,” Carney said.