Food bank reports 72% of users have been in Canada under a year

Food bank reliance has skyrocketed over the past year, with new immigrants representing the vast majority of demand.

A Toronto-area food bank, Feed Scarborough, has sounded the alarm following a dramatic 112% increase in new clients across its five locations.

Based on the clientele demographics, 95% of those relying on Feed Scarborough are not Canadian-born and less than three-quarters (72%) have been in Canada for less than a year. 

“I can’t pay the bills. I don’t have any money. I don’t have any income, but I’m still surviving,” said Brigitte, a new immigrant and frequent food bank visitor.

“The situations I’ve passed through, the things I’ve passed through have been a lot, and at times I regret. I’m like, ‘Why did I leave?’ I would’ve stayed there. On the other hand, I say you have to face it, and life has to move on.”

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of people accessing Feed Scarborough are students, likely international students.

A report from the Department of Immigration found that Canadians feel current immigration levels are 'too much, too fast,' amid widespread affordable housing shortages.https://t.co/Jho6uHMbFv

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“That says that we have precarious employment [and] that says housing and other expenses are so high that food is somewhere they compromise,” explained the food bank founder Suman Roy.

According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Cabinet’s latest Immigration Levels Plan set quotas at 465,000 people this year, another 485,000 next year and 500,000 in 2025. 

In 2022, Canada welcomed 1.1 million permanent and temporary residents — more than double the 430,000-person quota (permanent residents only) set by Ottawa for that year. Of these people, 95.9% came from international migration.

While most Canadians held favourable views of immigration, they questioned the feasibility of housing another half-million immigrants annually. “Gaps identified included more support [for] finding housing,” said the 2023 Annual Tracking Qualitative Research report.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), in a 2022 report, estimated supply shorted demand by 400,000 homes annually. 

According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Canada has approximately 16 million condos, townhouses and single-family residences. “We project that over 22 million units will be required to achieve affordability,” said Canada’s Housing Supply Shortages report.

Parliament’s 2019 National Housing Strategy Act has only built 106,000 homes, according to a May 5 Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons.

“It is too much, too fast,” said one participant. “We’re in this housing crisis,” said another. 

Over three in five (61%) Canadians lauded current immigration targets as ‘too high,’ while 63% attributed immigration to problems in the housing market.

“People are living on the street because there’s no housing,” said one respondent. “We need to get our own house in order before we welcome anybody else in.”

On August 3, immigration minister Marc Miller said the feds would maintain its current immigration targets with the potential for more immigrants shortly. 

“I don’t see a world in which we lower it; the need is too great,” he told reporters. 

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre claims Canada's immigration system is 'broken' but fell short when asked if he'd reduce annual quotas amid the ongoing housing crisis.

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Miller added: “Immigrants are [not] the major cause of housing pressures and the increase in home prices.”

“Whether we revise them upwards or not is something I have to look at. But certainly, I don’t think we’re in any position of wanting to lower them by any stretch of the imagination.”

According to calculations by Bloomberg from data culminated by Statistics Canada data and the CMHC, for each housing unit constructed, 4 to 5 immigrants came to Canada over the past year — the highest ever since data collection began in 1977. 

“We tend not to think in longer historical arcs or generational terms, but if people want dental care, health care and affordable housing that they expect, the best way to do that is to get that skilled labour in this country,” said Miller.