The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - Inflationary crisis happening in Canada.

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your

00:00:14.040 host, Jamie Schmell, Member of Parliament for Halliburton Corps of the Lakes, with new content

00:00:17.660 for you every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe,

00:00:22.300 and share this program. Tell your friends they can download it on platforms like CastBox, iTunes,

00:00:26.640 Google Play, and Spotify. You name it, it is out there. Happy 2026, but sadly, you will be paying

00:00:33.400 a lot more for groceries this year. To talk about this and so much more, we bring on Leila Goodrich, 1.00

00:00:38.460 a Member of Parliament for Fort McMurray Cold Lake. Thanks for coming on the show again.

00:00:42.500 Thanks for having me, Jamie. Unfortunately, a not-so-bright topic that we're going to talk

00:00:46.240 about. No, it's really sad. We are dealing with food insecurity like we've never seen in my lifetime

00:00:54.360 in generations here in Canada. And usually, when one generation moves into the next generation,

00:01:01.300 that moves to the next generation, we've usually been a little bit better off, if not a lot better

00:01:06.220 off, than the previous generations. Now, that's all changed. No, like, families can't afford to put

00:01:11.340 food on their table. Like, the stats are starting to show that one in four households is food insecure.

00:01:18.100 We have people that are struggling, that used to, that literally used to donate to the food bank.

00:01:22.940 They were in a position where they could donate. Now, there are clients using the food bank. 2.2 million

00:01:29.880 Canadians line up at food banks every single month in Canada, across this country. And the saddest part

00:01:35.560 is that one-third of those, over 700,000 kids, are the ones using those food banks. So, this is an

00:01:43.540 absolute travesty and something that the government seems to be completely negligent on.

00:01:48.280 Mm-hmm. Yeah. And kind of dismissive to the point. They just fluff it off and tell us things have

00:01:54.580 never been so good. Let's queue up cut one. So, estimated $800 a family of four is going to be

00:02:01.020 spending this year more than last year. But that's all compounded, right? This is the thing you need

00:02:06.540 to realize. It's compounded. So, 2022, 2022, it's all gone up. Well, what we've been seeing is year

00:02:12.960 over year, out-of-control food inflation. And so, $800 more this year, it was more last year, it was

00:02:20.180 more the year before. So, a family today is struggling compared to what a family five years ago was dealing

00:02:25.880 with. And that's as a direct result of out-of-control government spending, which is driving up inflation

00:02:31.760 and making everything more expensive. And all these new taxes and regulations. Play cut one.

00:02:36.360 Canada's Food Price Report 2025 estimates the average family of four will spend more than $800

00:02:42.360 more on food this year in comparison to what they spent in 2024. And the receipts don't end there.

00:02:50.620 Mark Carcassel is on the story for us. And I know you've been digging into some of the big findings

00:02:55.260 here. What can you tell us about what we're going to be paying at the grocery checkout?

00:02:59.480 Yeah. We've already been worried for years, Linda, about food insecurity across this country,

00:03:04.360 across the world, really. And this report only shows that there is more reason to worry,

00:03:09.060 increasing reason to worry. Of course, it's all subjective to how much you make, what your

00:03:12.820 various family debts are. But the fact remains that food prices are going up and up and up.

00:03:18.700 And the solution to many of these problems that we're facing now is, according to the Liberals,

00:03:25.080 another government program. Another government program funded, I'm not sure how, debts and

00:03:30.120 deficit. But this is their solution. Not attacking the root cause of how we got here.

00:03:37.500 Well, and I think this is pretty standard liberal piece of like, let's create a program so people

00:03:43.820 forget about it and tell them that they've never had it so good and how much money they're going to

00:03:46.980 be saving. Not talking about the fact that families want to actually feed their own children

00:03:51.280 and pick what food they are providing for their families for a variety of different pieces. And

00:03:57.120 so their marquee program, their thing that they're most proud of is the school food program, which,

00:04:04.200 frankly, I don't know anybody that wants to see a kid go to school hungry. Like, I don't think you do.

00:04:10.440 Like, nobody wants to see a kid. We have seen study after study showing that kids going to school

00:04:14.840 hungry don't do as well. So in theory, this is a great idea. But again, leave it to the Liberals

00:04:22.780 to take something that's great and make it bad. Because according to StatsCan, we have more than

00:04:29.000 600 million kids in, or 600, sorry, we have more than approximately 6.6 million kids here in Canada.

00:04:37.640 Well, they're only aiming to feed 400,000. So if you take the average school year represents

00:04:45.580 approximately 180 days of education, and the amount of money they're providing, that's

00:04:53.140 assuming $0 for administration, $3 per child per day.

00:04:59.460 We all know it goes around the cotton canning machine here in Ottawa.

00:05:02.260 Do you know what you could buy for $3 in my riding? In your riding, you might get groceries

00:05:07.680 a little bit cheaper. But up north in Fort McMurray, I could buy an apple, a banana, and an egg.

00:05:15.480 That's not a balanced meal. That's not enough for a kid to eat for the entire day at school.

00:05:20.400 Like, this is completely disconnected from the reality. If we could bring down the price

00:05:26.460 of food, families could be able to send their kids to school with food. We would be able to

00:05:33.260 help bring people back up. But this is so indicative of what the liberals do. They find a

00:05:38.480 problem, and they create a government program so that they can take credit for solving it.

00:05:43.200 The answer here is food is more expensive. Our food inflation is twice as high as what it is in the

00:05:49.320 U.S. We are out of control on food inflation, and that's, we have an industrial carbon tax that they

00:05:55.900 don't have. We tax farmers on fertilizer. The U.S. doesn't do that. We tax truckers to bring us

00:06:02.360 food. The U.S. doesn't do that. So our number one competitor, our biggest ally when it comes to being

00:06:09.320 able to compare apples to apples, they are doing things that aren't driving up the cost of food

00:06:14.820 as much as we are. So perhaps this is government that is creating this problem.

00:06:19.300 And the dollar is more powerful.

00:06:20.440 And their dollar is more powerful, and they have better growing periods, and therefore they have

00:06:25.420 more access to domestic food. But the reality is, if you tax a farmer that makes the food,

00:06:30.900 and you tax a trucker that brings you the food, you're taxing the food, whether you want to admit

00:06:34.360 it or not.

00:06:34.900 Oh, absolutely. And I think that's a stark difference between conservatives and liberals.

00:06:40.500 They create problems, and they create a new program to fix the problems that they created,

00:06:47.620 whereas we're more about getting to the root cause, right? So they're just building onto the pile.

00:06:52.500 We're trying to take the pile down to where it started, how it started, and address that. And

00:06:58.440 fundamentally, it starts with a strong economy, but also a government that lives within its means.

00:07:04.600 Absolutely. And I came from the health and safety world. So back when I was in industrial health and

00:07:09.720 safety up in the oil sands, you didn't just deal with the band-aid solutions. You always tried to

00:07:15.240 get to the root cause of what the problem was. Because if you could solve the root cause,

00:07:19.080 you might be able to completely eliminate the risk and eliminate the hazard. The liberals are just like,

00:07:24.600 basically throwing caulking on things, hoping that it doesn't leak and the walls don't crumble around

00:07:30.360 us. And that's not sustainable. And there's only so much money to choose from, right? In this fiscal

00:07:35.800 year, we're $78 billion in the hole. So they tout this as generational investment. Well, yeah,

00:07:43.080 the next generation and za will be paying for that. And they'll have to deal with reduced services or 1.00

00:07:51.000 higher taxes. Probably a combination of both. And that's not really fair to them either.

00:07:55.800 No. And like, this again, this goes back to, this is what their solutions are. They want to be

00:08:02.600 the guys in the red cape that come in to save Canada from itself. And the reality is, is Canadians are 0.98

00:08:09.640 ridiculously brilliant. We punch above our weight in so many different spaces. We need government to get

00:08:15.640 out of our way. Yeah, we don't need more dependents. No dependents. We don't need to be dependent on

00:08:20.280 government. Not for every single thing, every single step. But this is what these liberals have done

00:08:25.400 after the last decade. They've made it so that Canadians think that the only way is if government

00:08:31.480 comes in with a new program. Yeah, exactly. And unfortunately, when you're starving, you'll always

00:08:37.800 reach for the open hand. But unfortunately, the government always has something hidden in the hand

00:08:42.440 behind its back, right? Exactly. It's usually the club to hit you with in the form of more

00:08:46.600 dependents, increased taxes, less quality of life for you, and choice making. And it's a cycle that

00:08:52.760 keeps repeating itself. Yeah, exactly. So another issue that you brought up, and you were on the show

00:08:58.440 many years ago talking about the exact same thing. Very similar. Yeah, kind of crazy we're talking about

00:09:03.800 it again. Baby formula. Yeah, it turns out, three years, they've done nothing. Yes. Shocking. Let's queue up,

00:09:11.720 cut two, where you bring this to the floor of the House of Commons. The answer is, is pretty

00:09:16.600 remarkable. Play cut two. Every dollar the Prime Minister spends comes out of the pockets of

00:09:21.480 Canadians, driving up the cost of everything. Food inflation on baby formula is up 84% in eight years.

00:09:29.320 Formula is one of the top stolen food products in Canada, and it is now kept under lock and key in

00:09:34.440 many places in Canada. I heard from Sierra, a Manitoba mom, who knew she was buying stolen baby formula,

00:09:41.400 but she did it anyways because she had no other choice. Does the Prime Minister care that parents

00:09:47.800 can't afford to buy baby formula? On this side of the House, we have taken, and we are taking action

00:09:54.520 to fight food insecurity. This is why, among other measures, we're making the national school food

00:09:58.520 program permanent to ensure more children have access to healthy meals at school. They're forgetting the

00:10:03.960 part about the baby formula. Well, they don't listen. This is the problem. They don't listen. The baby

00:10:08.760 formula. Let's breathe before school. Yeah. And so, like I said in the question, we've discovered,

00:10:14.680 according to StatsCan, 84% increase in eight years on baby formula. The highest food product

00:10:21.720 inflation in Canada is on baby formula. Parents are struggling to be able to buy this. And for parents

00:10:29.480 that are feeding their children with baby formula, it is completely not replaceable with anything else. So

00:10:36.680 there are people that make choices. There are people that are unable to breastfeed. There's a

00:10:41.560 variety of different reasons. But for those families, this is their option. You cannot replace

00:10:49.720 it with something else. We are seeing families that are introducing cal milk earlier than doctors

00:10:54.600 recommend. We are seeing families introducing solids earlier than doctors recommend because they know that

00:11:01.000 starving their baby is not a good answer. And they can't afford baby formula. And this is the reality

00:11:06.200 after 10 years of liberals. And three years ago, we were talking about this. There was a huge crisis

00:11:11.880 because one of the largest plants of baby formula had to curb its supply because of issues that made

00:11:18.680 everything jump up. But we haven't learned anything. The government did effectively nothing in those three

00:11:27.000 years. And so we're now in a space where our food inflation on baby formula is at 84% in the last eight

00:11:32.680 years. In the US, it's at 43 and change in that same time frame. So we're twice as high on baby formula

00:11:40.600 than the US in the same time frame, which just means that Canadian families are having a harder time

00:11:46.680 meeting. And they don't care. Like they think it's funny to talk about school food program. Well,

00:11:51.880 babies don't go to school. That's right. Yeah. And I find it scary too. You mentioned in your question

00:11:58.920 that I've seen it around my rural area of baby formula being locked away or limited quantities

00:12:04.840 put out in shelves because it's becoming an item that's increasingly being stolen. And when you're a

00:12:10.600 parent and you have a child at home and it's that's hungry and you're going to do what you can. Like

00:12:17.160 obviously... Well, it's like the mom that reached out to me who told me that she

00:12:20.360 was knowingly buying stolen baby formula, but it costs so much less than buying baby formula at the

00:12:26.520 store. And she felt bad about it. But she knew she needed to feed her child. Yeah. Like...

00:12:35.240 This is the country that the Liberals have created. And this is 2025 in Canada, where we are literally

00:12:41.720 forcing people into desperation. Like this has become Canada's new normal. But what could we expect

00:12:46.760 from a Prime Minister who just doesn't care? He doesn't care. That's right. Have you talked to

00:12:51.240 our biggest trading partner? He doesn't care. Doesn't care. Doesn't care. Doesn't care about you.

00:12:56.200 Doesn't care. He's certainly enriching himself in some of these deals. I must say,

00:13:01.160 the Brookfield company is doing quite well. But the average person still struggling. Well,

00:13:05.880 maybe he'll care if Brookfield gets into the baby formula business. Maybe. Yeah. Then we might see some

00:13:10.600 changes. And I hate to be flippantly joking about this. But at this point, this has been an issue.

00:13:18.520 We've brought this up. We looked at this a number of times over the last three years. And they don't

00:13:27.320 care. They didn't care before Mark Kearney. And they care less now. And that's sad.

00:13:33.320 But I want to commend you. Because you are the one that stuck with this. You're the one that I know

00:13:40.200 mothers and fathers in our communities around the country were noticing this. But it was really you

00:13:47.000 that put it onto the national stage. It kind of brought everyone together that may have been in

00:13:51.240 Newfoundland and someone in BC that went, yeah, formula is expensive here and there. And it kind of

00:13:56.120 made them realize that there's a problem. Yeah. And congratulations to you on bringing this

00:14:01.800 national attention on a topic you really didn't want to because who wants to talk about that?

00:14:06.680 Well, and I didn't bring it up because it mattered to me. I brought it up because it

00:14:10.920 mattered to so many Canadians. So many Canadians were bringing this to me saying like, I feel like

00:14:15.320 I'm going crazy. Am I alone? And I was honored to get to bring those stories and those voices forward.

00:14:24.040 Like I've had the Liberal Minister of Families accuse me of fake outrage when I'm getting mad that

00:14:30.680 parents can't afford to feed their children baby formula. There's no fake outrage there. If you've

00:14:38.520 talked to families that can't put food on the table and are choosing between feeding themselves or

00:14:44.440 giving their baby baby formula, this isn't some kind of luxury item here. This isn't going down and

00:14:52.520 buying a fancy purse or a brand new car. This is like a staple. Yep. And this is after 10 years of

00:15:02.520 the government and they don't care. They don't seem to care. Nothing seems to be getting better on that

00:15:06.040 front. But we have some solutions. We talked about a stronger economy. There's things we can get going

00:15:10.280 in terms of projects. If people have jobs, then they can afford to buy the products. And we can then

00:15:17.960 look at bringing in competition so that we can lower some of the prices. Like if you look at what the

00:15:23.080 price of baby formula is in the UK or almost any of the EU countries, we're not competitive with them.

00:15:31.240 We're much higher. We're higher than the US. So we can do things to bring down the price. But this would

00:15:38.600 require government to actually care. Well, maybe that is a new program for it. We're pretty much out of time.

00:15:43.480 As you know, the guests get the last word. Leila, the floor is yours. I want to just thank you

00:15:47.800 for bringing me on so that more voices can hear on this important topic. And

00:15:54.920 for those that are able, what I'm going to ask is, if you can, we have food banks and families that

00:16:01.640 are relying on food banks, sometimes for the first time ever. We have food banks that have bare shelves

00:16:07.480 of baby formula. So if you could donate, consider donating some baby formula to your local food bank

00:16:14.280 and be part of the solution. This isn't solving the root cause of the problem, but this could make

00:16:20.120 a huge difference for your local food banks and for the families that rely on them. So thanks.

00:16:24.840 Couldn't have said that better myself. Leila, thank you so much for being on the show.

00:16:28.520 Really appreciate your vision and your advocacy for this. And food insecurity is a growing and

00:16:34.760 unfortunate situation here in Canada. So appreciate you fighting for those that are struggling.

00:16:40.040 Leila Goodridge, Member of Parliament for Fort McMurray, Cold Lake. Thank you for your time.

00:16:44.040 Thank you for yours. Don't forget, new content for you every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern time.

00:16:49.080 Again, don't forget to like, comment, subscribe and share this program. Until next week,

00:16:53.160 remember low taxes, less government, more freedom. That's the blueprint.

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - December 23, 2025

Inflationary crisis happening in Canada.

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