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The price tags on everything from groceries to transportation have seen significant rises over the past year. This episode, we’re digging into why costs of living have risen so sharply, and how it’s impacting folks in the Alberta Capital Region.
Do Local Good is a podcast created by United Way of the Alberta Capital Region and the team of volunteers on the GenNEXT Cabinet. We feature stories and people from the Edmonton region to inform, inspire, and invite others to join us in building resilient and thriving communities. Listen in to learn about some of the local good already happening, and how you can be a part of the force for good!
INTRO
[Tokunbo] Hello! My name is Tokunbo Adegbuyi and this is Peace Out Poverty, the podcast that discusses social issues in the Alberta Capital Region, and shows you how you can get involved.
And today, we’re talking about the rising costs of everything! So, you’re probably already involved. Sorry about that.
[BEAT]
[Tokunbo] Listen, we don’t need the long monologue at the top of the episode this time. You know the deal; everything has become wildly expensive in a short amount of time. Rent is up. Gasoline is up. Even the costs at Rogers Place have found a way to reach new heights.
And for most Canadians, wages have not kept up with this rise. According to a Stats Canada report from February 2022, wages went up by 3.1% in the past year. But according to...an email from CEO of Loblaws, Galen Weston Jr., the prices of soup and butter are up by more than 15%. Hmm.
What’s the cause of all this? Is it the pandemic? The war in Ukraine? Corporate greed? Supply chain issues? The answer...is yes. It's complicated. Hence this episode!
We’re going to give a quick summary on what is driving these historic levels of inflation, and take a deeper dive into some specific areas where you’re probably feeling the pinch.
And we’re not even going to get into the costs of things like entertainment, recreation, leisure, and all those things that make life vibrant and interesting! This is Peace Out Poverty! No, today we are going to discuss the basic needs that me, you, and everyone that you know need to access on a regular basis. Like housing, energy, food.
How do these specific costs impact the wellbeing of people in the Alberta Capital Region? Well, if you’ve been around for at least the past 6 months, I’m sure you have an idea. But where can you turn when costs are just too high and how do we get out of this? More on that to come. But first, let’s understand how we got to $11 value meals and gas being $1.75/L.
[BEAT]
[Tokunbo] For the next few minutes, we’re going to tackle the I-word. Inflation. This term has been used liberally for the past two years, so let’s break it down. Inflation can be defined as a persistent rise of prices over time.
Over the long-run, a growing, capitalist economy like Canada’s will see more demand for goods and services than supply. There’s always some scarcity, and this pushes prices up slowly over time. Slow and predictable inflation can be healthy for an economy; each dollar retains its value for longer and this encourages people to keep money circulating. The Bank of Canada, the institution in charge of controlling Canada’s supply of money, tries to keep inflation at a steady rate of 2% year-over-year.
But if this is the case, then how, in June 2022, did inflation get up to 8.1%, the highest it’s been in nearly 40 years? In short, a severe imbalance of supply and demand all around the world. In long, well we’re going to oversimplify a bunch of macroeconomics and present some key factors to high inflation with the bleakest numbered list ever!
Factor #1: The Pandemic.
When the pandemic started, many people lost their income and some industries went into complete hibernation. The economy stayed like this for months until we better understood the virus and vaccines became more widely available the following year. Because of social benefits like CERB, there was still money circulating the economy, but fewer people working than ever. This created an imbalance between supply of goods and demand that became more noticeable when most regions fully opened back up in early 2021. This isn’t to say that CERB was bad, I’d argue the opposite. But it did play a part in destabilizing prices.
But speaking of unstable supply. Let’s talk about Factor #2: the infamous “supply chain issues”.
After such a long slow period, many industries weren’t ready to spring back into gear when vaccines became widely available. There weren’t enough rental cars for all the new travel, not enough parts for appliances and consumer electronics. And when there’s not enough supply for the demand, you guessed it, inflation rises.
And then, as we are still dealing with increased costs for raw materials, we encounter Factor #3, the so-called Great Resignation.
Many of the folks who were laid off during the pandemic found new jobs elsewhere. And those who had work through the pandemic weren’t keen to stick around when other options became available. So in some sectors, particularly service, healthcare and hospitality, we entered a labour shortage. Another instance of demand outstripping supply. But unfortunately, there’s more.
Some supply chains began to recover, but then in February 2022, escalation of the Russia-Ukraine War destabilized...everything. Ukraine is a major producer of grain; the grain that goes into much of the world’s food, and feeds livestock. And Russia a major supplier of oil to Europe and nations overseas. Their supply was taken out of the equation and domestic oil supplies didn’t bridge the gap. There’s also the financial and social panic that comes with war. This is Factor #4 and it kicked off massive increases in costs in food and most forms of transportation.
So, is it reasonable to say that your bills went up due to inflation? Well, mostly. But even with these unique factors compounding on top of each other, there’s still more to unpack here. Inflation is at a record high, but so are corporate profits. We have to mention some industries making intentional decisions to raise their prices beyond the inflation rate. Factor #5. For an example, the Alberta government eliminated a 13-cent provincial tax on gasoline in April 2022. Two months later, that saving had all but disappeared. And then when the government called for a probe in price-fixing between gas stations, costs went down overnight.
Okay so to recap, we highlighted five key contributors to prices going up:
Instability at the onset of the pandemic
Ensuing supply chain issues
Labour shortages across multiple sectors
A war between two nations pivotal to the global economy
Organizations skimming some extra off the top
Is this the definitive list. Absolutely not, this is a simplification of some fairly complex global economics. From 2020 to now, there have been massive political movements all over the world, climate disasters, like 17 British Prime Ministers. And I can’t stress this enough, the pandemic has ensued in waves this entire time, infecting and disabling at record rates. At this point, labour shortages have become chronic. All of this has played a role.
And remember, the Bank of Canada hasn’t been asleep at the wheel this whole time. They have been using the tools at their disposal to bring down inflation. And one way to do that is to raise interest rates. The cost of borrowing money has gone up. So every business, every sector that operates with Canadian dollars has seen their base costs go up. It seems counter-intuitive to alleviate increasing costs of goods and services by...intentionally raising the costs of goods and services, but that’s monetary policy for you.
Okay, I am done playing armchair economist. Let’s see how these factors have materially impacted Albertans when it comes to housing. For this, we are going to need some help. Our friend Feven Worede talked to Hayley Irving about the social impact of inflation in our community
INTERVIEW 1
[Hayley] My name is Hayley Irving and I am a settler in amiskwaciwâskahikan, colonially known as Treaty Six Territory. And I am working with a safety council called Reach.
Reach Edmonton is a safety council. Really what Reach is about is like strengthening safety in our community. And that can be done by like creating partnerships, back boning different ideas, finding ways to, like, lift up different ideas that are, maybe, in social innovation to be able to create a sense of safety for our community.
So when I think about what Reach as an organization has observed, I think it's outward facing. I mean crime and, poverty and a sense of desperation in a lot of people's personal experiences.
But also funding, access to funding. The things that, you know, are important to us, are harder to get. And so, we've seen an increase in our need to upscale some of our initiatives, example, 24/7 crisis diversion.
[Tokunbo] REACH Edmonton operates many initiatives, including a 24/7 Crisis Diversion service. This helps decriminalize the act of living in poverty or experiencing substance use disorders, and this service is especially useful in supporting unhoused community members. Which is good, because since the pandemic started, the number of unhoused people in Edmonton has more than doubled.
[Hayley] I feel like it's a big demographic. I feel like you have like these families that have like really sustained themselves for so long and maybe lived a moderate lifestyle and things have really shifted for them. So that's a really hard space to be in.
We know so much loss to suicide in our province. And what does that mean? What's promoting spaces where you get to be in such a desperate place to take your own life? Right? And then I think of women who are fleeing domestic situations that we haven't really created pathways for women and families to be able to easily find housing without needing credit checks, proper ID, all that type of things. Like we've really made things difficult. And there's a lot of people who at - definitely there's a lot of programming that tries to, like, sift through that, but it's still there.
I would say the fact that, our social allowances and people who have permanent disabilities and are dependent on a social income. I can't imagine what that must be like making choices about food or home. And definitely I don't see that changing at all. If anything, it's probably worse.
[Tokunbo] To give an example of what Hayley is referring to, let’s discuss A-I-S-H. AISH, Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped. This is a basic income that is paid monthly to individuals who cannot otherwise find work due to a disability. The maximum someone on AISH can receive is just under $1700 per month. And according to the Living Wage Report published by the Edmonton Social Planning Committee in 2021, the living wage for a single adult is over $2600. After taxes. Hayley continues.
[Hayley] We have no means in our province or in our city for rental caps, no protection for tenants around that. And people get put into really sticky, unsafe situations. For example, with Reach we had a student that was coming from a different country last year, made all of the arrangements to go to the university and was gonna be working with us, and they got literally bamboozled by a landlord.
And if it wasn't for our Reach, our people out of their own pockets trying to get this kid in a safe situation. If he didn't have that connection, what would've happened? He probably would've beenhaving to use shelter. And not speaking our language, really unsafe kind of ways that we haven't created safe pathways for renters in our city.
[Tokunbo] REACH’s main focus is finding ways to promote community safety. But there is some disagreement amongst people in our community about what safety looks like. For many the presence of unhoused people is inherently unsafe. Hayley feels differently.
[Hayley] We have a crisis in our city. There are so many people who are houseless, but they have created conditions for home in their own way, but yet we don't honor that, right? And so when do we start like suspending this idea that we have the answers without listening to the people that have said for years, and years, and years, when you displace encampments its unsafe. But no one wants that, right? Cuz they're like, well, not in my yard. But there is some people that are like, yeah, in my yard.
And so how do we find those places that are like, Yes, in my yard and yes to this. And yes, we could make it better and yes, we could try it this way. And yes, we're, it's okay to fail and it's okay to fail again. And so when we'd hear about the city prototyping, that's important. The only way you learn new lines of flight and new ways to working with people and new ways of creation, of experiences for people that matter to them is by asking them, involving them and testing the idea. It's the only way. Because then we just get really stuck on a really colonial way of caring for our community and it has never worked, right? Because it leaves people out, always.
[Tokunbo] When Hayley says prototyping, she’s referring to Edmonton’s attempt to rework how community members and public services engage with encampments. From November 2022 – March 2023, the city will be building a prototype framework to more effectively and humanely support people living in outdoor encampments.
Hayley and REACH are working to support people who have experienced a kind of worst-case scenario. And to help the most vulnerable among us find some stability, community, and dignity.
But there are many others who are living just at the edge of precarity. Who’ve felt the rise in costs and have perhaps, for the first time in their lives, turned to social assistance. As a first response, many of these folks access the Edmonton Food Bank.
[BEAT]
INTERVIEW 2
[Tokunbo] The Edmonton Food Bank works with schools, churches, and community organizations to help people in the Alberta Capital Region meet their most basic need for food. And fun fact, the Edmonton Food Bank is actually the oldest food bank in Canada, having been in operation since 1981! To see how they’ve kept up with current trends, we connected with Tamisan.
[Tamisan] My name is Tamisan Bencz-Knight, and I'm the manager of Strategic Relationships and Partnerships with Edmonton's Food Bank. That's a huge title, but essentially I'm part of a team who food raise, fundraise, and "friendraise" for the organization. So I have that wonderful job to go out to the community, talk about our work, and to hopefully bring in the food and funds to allow us to do that.
2020 was a difficult year, but again, it was transition year for us trying to figure out how to work with Covid, how to keep food flowing out to people in need. 2021, the number of people needing our help started going up again. Our averages were higher in 2021 than 2020. Now that we're looking at 2022. This is the worst I've ever seen, and I've been around the food banking world since 1988. I started as a volunteer. I've seen the craziness with, Ralph Klein and those de-institutionalization, the, all those cutbacks from the nineties and how that affected us as an organization. I saw all that. That's easy compared to what we're going through right now. Since May of 2022, our average clients through a hamper program is about 30,000 people. That's more than the population of Leduc. We thought that June was high at 35,000 people. We hit 30 more than 36,000 people in August alone in the one program. 36,000 people! That's the equivalent population of Lloydminster. 40% of those individuals are children. Those are thousands and thousands of children needing our help every month.
[Tokunbo] As you might’ve guessed, this leap in demand isn’t just an Edmonton problem. According to Arianna Scott, CEO of Food Banks Alberta, the latest hunger count report indicated a 30 per cent increase in demand for food bank services across the province. And remember those churches and community organizations I mentioned earlier? Across Alberta, 64 per cent more of them are accessing food banks as well. And unfortunately, this has all been met with a 34 per cent decrease in the amount of donations received by food banks.
Tamisan shared just how ubiquitous the need for support has become.
[Tamisan] The last six months, super bad cuz we've all seen it. I've been impacted. You've been impacted. Your neighbors, your coworkers all were like, Oh my gosh, I bought five things from the grocery store, $40 for five items that should have cost me probably $25 in the past. So I feel it. The people that we're serving that needed us before, they need us more often cuz they can't stretch that any further.
That money that they're making that was just not making it in the first place, is really not doing anything for them right now. Anyone on a fixed income like AISH, government's not adding more money to that pool of money, uh, that pot for them to be able to live off of. Where do they go? They come see us. We're here to support them.
We also have a segment of the population that didn't need the food bank cuz they were just making it. They didn't need our help that are actually now needing us because their meager earnings, isn't paying for full rent, is not paying for those bills and is not keeping food on the table. We have our donors that are impacted.
We had a donor walk into the food bank cuz they didn't know what they, most people call us, but they didn't know how to access us and they usually walked in to make their donations to us and they need to walk in to ask us for help. So if that doesn't affect you as a human being, I don't know what will, because somebody that used to give and help us feed people are now needing to turn to us because they have to feed themselves and their family.
[Tokunbo] Having been in the field for so long, The Edmonton Food Bank has the capacity to accomodate all kinds of dietary restrictions and support folks more holistically.
[Tamisan] So we recognize that food is just one part, and there's other key items that an individual needs. So we try to make sure that we have certain items from soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste. We definitely have baby formula, baby food, but diapers can be quite expensive over time. Feminine hygiene. It's not a guarantee at is so big that we have those items, but when we have them and somebody request them, we'll make sure that they get into those hampers. We also ensure that we have some Halal foods. Celiacs will come in, say, "I'm gluten intolerantI can't take so many things." We have volunteers and staff who provide directions so that we know how to build those hampers.
[Tokunbo] We’re fortunate to live in a community with such a well-established food bank, but for as great as the Edmonton Food Bank is – and it is pretty great - it’s simply not enough to address the systemic issues we’re facing.
[Tamisan] You just need to eat. It's a basic human right. We need food. And so, it will affect people's mental health. You have to make decisions on paying the rent or feeding your children? That, I'm sorry, messes you up. There are decisions that you shouldn't have to make, and it's hard, so you get angrier, you can't contribute. You're expected to, You're expected to keep working, so it will impact your physical, mental, and your ability to contribute to the rest of the society.
So over the last 10 years I've always maintained that food insecurity is a symptom of poverty. If we don't deal with poverty, we will never solve food insecurity. As an organization, we deal with food. We're, very good with food at Edmonton's Food Bank We're great at food! We've never said that we will solve food insecurity, and I will maintain that no matter what, just handing out food, we'll never solve that because poverty is so complex. It could be somebody having a bit of mental health challenges, and that could be PTSD. It could be an addiction to something because something else happened.
So this is where we have to work, not food security in one silo and poverty in another. They are interconnected and together, so we have to help people out of that poverty situation so that we can help them become food secure. Affordable housing. Affordable childcare, affordable transportation. Those are some key things. Let's get people the mental health supports that they need. Those areas will help reduce food insecurity that's where our governments can maybe put some more effort. We need to look at investing in poverty reduction areas and make things more affordable, and that would reduce our food insecurity here.
[Tokunbo] And if you are in a fortunate enough position to support our food bank, Tamisan has some recommendations on how to do that, beyond the usual soup can or box of mac and cheese.
[Tamisan] Well, for us at Edmonton's Food Bank, all foods fit. If you go shopping and you're like, Oh, I don't wanna give money cause I'm not too sure about that organization, but I'll give food. Give us something that you enjoy eating, too. Soup, especially canned, tomato and canned mushroom is greatly appreciated, but give us what you like to eat.
CONCLUSION
[Tokunbo] We can’t tell you when costs will go back down. Or in some cases, if they will go back down. Remember, the goal of the Bank of Canada is to slow down inflation, not deflate. So the best that we can hope for with this economic system is some level of stability.
But in the meantime, like Hayley and Tamisan said, we need to look out for each other. Donate when you can, share resources, like tools and meals with your neighbors, and expand what you think a safe and thriving community could look like.
And we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again; poverty is not something you can budget your way out of. No amount of coupon clipping, turning down the thermostat, or temporary price freezes at your friendly neighborhood multinational corporation are enough – especially if your expenses double and your wage stays the same. We need upstream solutions.
If we’re going to have wage labour, the minimum wage should be a living wage. We should ensure fixed incomes like pensions and AISH actually pay the bills. And we need real, enforceable protections against arbitrary rent hikes and price gouging. these would be a start. And when we finally have some room to breathe, maybe we can start to ask ourselves why there are so many required costs...to just living.
This has been Peace Out Poverty. This episode was hosted by me, Tokunbo Adegbuyi. It was written by Tokunbo Adegbuyi and Alex Bedard. Interviews were conducted by Feven Worede. This episode was produced by Castria.
GenNEXT is a volunteer committee of United Way of the Alberta Capital Region. If you’d like to learn more or find out how you can be a part of the plan to end poverty, visit MyUnitedWay.ca.