Anti-poverty advocate says action needed to help Albertans struggling with soaring inflation

A Calgary anti-poverty advocate says governments need to act as the price of groceries and other goods continue to rise as inflation soars.

Statistics Canada's latest consumer price index report shows Albertans paid roughly 4.8 per cent more for items like food and insurance in December 2021 compared to the same time the previous year.

"Every time we see that inflation number rise, we know that the tradeoffs in the community are actually getting much worse," said Meaghon Reid, executive director, Vibrant Communities Calgary.

She says lately a lot of her clients have had to make tradeoffs just to meet basic needs.

"People who are rationing out meals, or potentially adults in the household who are skipping meals so their children can eat," she said.

"Senior citizens who are skipping days of medication in order to be able to pay for other basic necessities in their life, such as transportation and food."

She says there's been a huge increase in the amount of people using food bank services, and others who are not accessing those services and struggling.

Reid says there needs to be more investment in affordable housing, and the province should reinstate the indexing of income supports in tune with the rate of inflation. More than 280,000 Albertans receive stipends, due to disability, low-income or are struggling to find work. But that support is no longer tied to the cost of living since indexing was paused in 2019.

"Pausing those income supports means that people are sort of stuck at a point in time when things actually were more affordable. They're far less affordable now."

Andrew Barclay, an economist at Statistics Canada, says the year-over-year inflation in Alberta is the highest it's been since 2007.

"It's a pretty significant movement," he said.

"You, and I, and everyone, are consumers of food and when we go to the grocery stories we see these high prices and we see prices increasing. And it's frustrating because we have to buy this stuff."

In Alberta, specifically, there's been high inflation on utilities, natural gas, insurance, and food, including meat, fresh fruit and vegetables.