Poilievre Decries ‘Federal Food Bureaucracy’ After Trudeau Announces $1 Billion School Food Program

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks during a news conference in Vancouver on Nov. 13, 2023. The Canadian Press/Ethan Cairns

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre criticized the prime minister on April 1 for announcing a $1 billion national school food program on the same day the federal carbon tax was raised.

“After eight years of promising that he'd helped the middle class, well now by his own admission, one in four kids don’t get enough food. I find it ironic that he is promising a federal food bureaucracy in Ottawa the same day as he raises taxes on food,” Mr. Poilievre said during a press conference in Nanaimo, B.C., on April 1.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that in his government’s upcoming budget, $1 billion would be set aside to provide meals to 400,000 more children each year over a five-year period. The program would allow Ottawa to partner with provinces and territories to implement the program.

Mr. Trudeau campaigned on launching such a program during the 2021 election, and the federal NDP, which is in a supply and confidence agreement with the Liberals that keeps them in power until 2025, has pushed the party to fulfill that promise ahead of the April 16 federal budget.

The prime minister’s announcement comes on the same day the federal carbon tax increased from $65 per tonne of greenhouse gas emissions to $80. That tax is set to rise until it hits $170 per tonne in 2030.

The Liberals have argued that through the Canada Carbon Rebate, the federal government is giving more money back to eight out of 10 Canadians than they pay through the carbon tax. Mr. Trudeau has also argued that the carbon tax is an effective way to fight climate change.

Poilievre Says Carbon Tax Hurting Families

Across Canada on April 1, Canadians held protests against the federal carbon tax increase, with many arguing it is hurting them financially at a time when the cost of living is continually rising.

Mr. Poilievre, whose party has continually called for the carbon tax to be “axed,” told reporters that the policy is making food more expensive. “His carbon tax on the farmer who grows the food, and the trucker who shifts the food, is a tax on the single mom who can’t afford to buy the food,” he said.

The Conservative leader added that the fact that one in four school children is going without enough food was a “major failure” for the prime minister. “This is after eight years of promising that he'd help the middle class,” he said.

Mr. Poilievre did not directly answer a reporter’s question on whether he would support the Liberals’ national school food program, instead claiming his “common sense plan” was to get rid of the carbon tax to lower the cost of food.

A total of seven premiers have also called for Ottawa to pause the carbon tax increase. Over the weekend, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey wrote a letter to Mr. Trudeau to ask for an “emergency meeting of leaders” to discuss alternatives to the tax.