By MPP Bobbi Ann Brady
The media is speckled with stories about the lack of affordability facing Ontarians. I’ve been constantly absorbing endless reports. But even without media coverage, I would be fully aware of the situation. Both from a personal purchasing perspective and by hearing it from you. I’m glad you are connecting and keeping me posted about your personal struggles with the increasing prices of food, fuel, housing, and well, everything. I don’t need to say it, but we are in an affordability crisis.
On March 26, the Ontario Budget was released, and I was hoping for new and innovative strategies to provide relief. I didn’t see much. There was the removal of the eight per cent provincial HST on new homes up to $1 million, with improved rebates for homes up to $1.5 million, which commenced April 1st, theoretically saving buyers up to $130,000 when combined with federal initiatives. That’s great, but how many people can afford a new home right now? And I was happy the government maintained the reduction in gasoline and fuel taxes; however, it’s still a bitter pill when you pump.
At the end of the day, many critics and I complained about a lack of immediate, direct financial relief for groceries or rent, and many also noted the Budget failed to address significant underfunding in health care and education. I joined the chorus to stand in the House and remind the government that Budget 2026 failed to deliver affordability for you because, as I said at the time, I hear from far too many families who are barely hanging on in the current economic climate.
I’m going to focus on food affordability. A Nanos poll released in January illustrated 50.9 per cent of Ontarians and 52.3 per cent of Canadians cite grocery prices as the number one area they want to reduce their spending.
Being from the breadbasket of Ontario, I have an insight most MPPs lack—I hear from farmers about food affordability related to production. And from what I’ve been hearing, food prices will likely be heading north. Behind much of the increase is the cost of fuel and fertilizer. And behind that, to a large degree, is the Middle East crisis. I also want to point out, the increase in sticker price at grocery stores doesn’t make it to farmers’ pockets.
As I write this, the news is reporting an on and off again two-week ceasefire between the USA and Iran. Regardless, the war has thus far had Iran blocking safe passage of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. As Nelson Zandbergen of Farmers Forum recently put it related to fuel and fertilizer, “(The Middle East crisis) idled production plants in the region and triggered Iran into blocking the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf, sending oil prices soaring by more than 50 per cent and driving up prices for urea by about 40 per cent as of March 20.” Urea, as many of you know, is the most popular nitrogen-based fertilizer and roughly half of it comes from the Persian Gulf.
So, the pinch point, the Strait of Hormuz, besides having left oil tankers treading water, has also been blocking the export of urea from the Persian Gulf. The blockage of fuels and fertilizer from getting where it’s needed means food prices are likely to continue rising.
We’re all in this together and we’ll all have to budget wisely to get through it. Meanwhile, I will be encouraging the government to budget wisely and get creative in finding affordability and helping ease the pressure on all of us.
Bobbi Ann Brady is the MPP for Haldimand-Norfolk