COST OF LIVING COULD BE THE DEMISE OF SOME OF US ON FIXED INCOMES

I don't know about your situation in your particular neck of the woods dear reader but if, as I suspect, it is much the same as in mine there is something drastically wrong with the picture.

This week we were told that the cost of healthy eating continues to rise in my Grey-Bruce area, leaving more residents at risk of food insecurity and susceptible to significant health risks. The 2018 Nutritious Food Basket survey shows that a family of four requires $204.16 each week to meet basic food needs, up 55 cents from last year.

Next stop?...Being unable to buy sufficient food -- period, healthy or otherwise -- if the Ontario government continues to dismiss the plight of the needy and fixed income seniors in our otherwise reasonably affluent province.

Laura Needham, public health dietitian with the Grey-Bruce Health Unit, said in a recent interview that generally each year there is not a big jump in costs to the food basket -- made up of 67 set items including plain, raw ingredients such as fresh produce, meats and other goods -- but it is the little things that keep adding up.

"The cost of food really isn't the problem when it comes to food insecurity, it is the fact that incomes are stagnant," Needham explained.  In other words, the cost of living keeps going up while fixed incomes are not in proportion.

Figures from the health unit tell the sad story.

For the aforementioned family of four receiving $2,549 in Ontario Works payments and forking out an average monthly rent of $945 plus food costs of $884, there is $753 left to cover all other basic living expenses (travel, utilities, toiletries, clothing, recreation and entertainment). Worse yet, for a single person receiving $794 from Ontario Works, paying the average rent of $604 with $297 in food costs, has them already in the red to the tune of $91 before paying for any other basic needs.

Consider also a single senior similar to me, still living in their own reverse-mortgaged home and receiving an average monthly Canada Pension stipend of $1,700 ($20,400 yearly) which, as we speak, does not fully cover the cost of utilities, maintenance and upkeep, municipal property taxes, insurance, transportation, food and increasingly limited contributions to religious institutions and charitable causes. Over an extended period of penny-pinching it does not take long to eat up any meagre supplemental life savings in the process of maintaining what amounts to a life style that hovers slightly at or below the poverty level.

Don't for one minute get me wrong, however.  I am very grateful for the CPP benefits that I receive after having contributed to the plan for 40 years.  Without it I could not survive.

To add further to this horror story, Canada's Food Price Report 2019 recently predicted that the average Canadian family is expected to spend an extra $411 on food in the coming year, so you do the rest of the math.

Needham rightly emphasizes that those who cannot afford healthy food are more apt to have chronic diseases such as cancer, hypertension, diabetes and heart issues and are more likely to develop mental health problems like depression, social exclusion and anxiety. All in all, something that public health needs to take into consideration.  Food banks and student nutrition programs are commendable but by no means are they a permanent solution. As it is now many food banks have difficulty keeping up with the demand for their service.

The Grey-Bruce Health Unit has advocated a basic income program for some time and, in fact, Ontario's Liberal government actually started a pilot initiative last spring in the Hamilton, Thunder Bay and Lindsay areas, but after the June provincial election the new Progressive Conservative government announced cancellation of the pilot, effective March 2019. To see a positive, socially conscious program cancelled in its infancy and before quality data could be collected, is truly a disappointing prospect.

As for me, I'm pretty resourceful.  In the future, when my food budget is depleted each month, I can always resort to selling pencils on the street corner, begging -- or stealing...What ever it takes to keep body and soul together.

All kidding aside, a beg, borrow or steal segment of society could very well be in the making, if it doesn't already exist. People will do whatever it takes to survive and that is a pretty scary reality.

Of course, we could all end up starving to death. Thus ridding rotund, never-missed-a-meal-in-his-life Premier Doug Ford of a troublesome portion of the electorate. Could it be that there is method in certain madness?