George Brown College student Keith Brown said the rising costs of living will force him to make choices he doesn’t want to make.
“I was already worrying about how I could budget between my classes and my rent. The food prices shot up so much I didn’t eat for three days just so I could save some money,” Brown said.
Inflation in Canada reached 5.7 per cent in February, an increase from 5.1 per cent in January, according to Statistics Canada.
“Consumers paid higher prices for gasoline and groceries in February 2022 compared with the same month a year earlier,” StatCan reported. “Shelter costs continued to trend higher, rising at the fastest year-over-year pace since August 1983.”
Families and students on a fixed income all go through the grueling process of trying to balance their money between education, food, transportation and more.
Brown said a fear among people losing ground to inflation is being unable to afford to eat and have a roof over their head. He said it might become his reality as he wonders how they are going to feed themselves.
“Right now, buying food seems completely off the table honestly. Everything is so expensive,” he said.
These already trying times have been made worse with the skyrocketing prices of groceries, many looking for a way to make it work. For a specific group however, it has raised one of the world’s biggest challenges to an almost insurmountable height, the challenge of motherhood.
Toronto single mom Marcie Mingo said she’s been struggling to balance her budget but it has knocked her off-balance, trying to provide for herself and her daughter Keisha, 8.
She said raising her daughter alone has been difficult, but with rising food prices, trying to juggle working from home and isolation because of COVID-19 has her feeling off-balance.
“Everyday it feels like the weight of the world is on my shoulders,” Mingo said. “It’s already tough on my own, but I have to power through for my little girl.
“I’ve been trying to adapt, be flexible and accept this pandemic might go on forever you know, but we’re really in need of some more help from the government,” she said.
“It’s like they expect us to just juggle everything and not fall over,” said Mingo, who owns a hair salon in Toronto.
Andrel Campbell, of Toronto, relies on Ontario Disability Support Program benefits because of chronic kidney disease, sees inflation as an issue that has to be solved fast.
“Most of us are already on our last leg,” he said. “The majority of my money goes towards my medication and treatment which is costly as it is.
“How am I going to pay for my groceries now?” Campbell asked.
COVID-19 poses an added deadly threat to people with disabilities due to the damage on their body from their disability, but its also starting to pose a threat to their income as well.
“More has to be done, the government most certainly has enough money to give. I’m already in a fight for my life, I don’t need another one,” Campbell said.