Submission to the Government of Ontario re. 2026 Provincial Budget
To the Honourable Minister of Finance and Members of Cabinet,
On behalf of the Ottawa Community Food Partnership (OCFP), we are writing to provide input into Ontario’s upcoming provincial budget. OCFP is a collaborative network of community organizations, service providers, and coalition partners working to address food insecurity in Ottawa through coordinated action, shared learning, and systems-level solutions.
We welcome the opportunity to participate in Ontario’s budget consultations, and we urge the Province to recognize food insecurity for what it is: a policy failure that creates systemic inequity, and results in inadequate income and the inability for so many Ontario residents to access and afford basic needs like housing and food. It is not an individual failure, and not a problem that can be solved through charitable food access alone. It has significant and lasting impacts on health, safety, and overall wellbeing, placing sustained pressure on healthcare systems, community services, and families across the province.
Food security is a provincial responsibility
Whereas:
As documented by Feed Ontario, food insecurity and reliance on food banks have continued to rise steadily since 2018, and have increased even further since the last provincial election.
Ontario has direct responsibility for many of the core systems that determine whether people can afford food, including but not limited to, social assistance rates, minimum employment wages and related labour standards, housing policy, and investments in public health and community services. When these systems fail to keep pace with the real cost of living, the result is predictable: more households experiencing poverty, deeper food insecurity, and higher downstream costs to Ontario’s public services, like healthcare.
Ontario’s Fall Economic Statement, Plan to Protect Ontario, included limited measures to protect the most marginalized Ontarians. Racialized and Indigenous residents, single parents, and lone-dwelling adults are among the most likely to experience poverty and food insecurity.
Investments in energy and manufacturing may benefit the province’s long-term economic outlook, but they offer little immediate impact for residents who are struggling to put food on the table today.
The strongest predictor of household food insecurity is inadequate income, either from employment, social assistance and government benefits, or a combination of these.
The Ottawa Community Food Partnership strongly urges the Ontario government to understand this siren: Ontario’s current approach is not meeting the moment. As such, we have compiled recommendations for your consideration for the provincial budget, as outlined below.
Recommendations
1) Make life more affordable by rebuilding income supports
Whereas:
Ontario must ensure people can meet their basic needs with dignity, whether through employment income, and/or social assistance, including disability support benefits.
Ontario Works rates have been frozen since 2018, while the cost of living has increased significantly, which has meant years of deepening poverty with no meaningful relief for people with no or limited ability to work.
The Ontario Living Wage Network has shown persistent gaps between minimum wage and living wage, leaving many employed people across Ontario unable to afford adequate food and stable housing, even while working.
Therefore, we recommend to:
Increase Ontario Works and ODSP rates to reflect the real cost of living.
Index these rates to inflation going forward, like what is currently being done with ODSP rates.
Remove punitive rules and clawbacks that trap people in poverty, including restrictive limits on earned income and savings.
Move minimum wage closer to living wages across Ontario and strengthen employment standards so that employment reliably protects people from poverty.
2) Keep people in their homes: housing stability is food security
Whereas:
Housing and food insecurity are inseparable, with food becoming the most often first expense to be cut when housing costs consume most of a household’s income.
Ontario cannot meaningfully reduce food insecurity without stabilizing housing through policies like expanded rent control, eviction prevention, and building more affordable units where they are needed.
Keeping people housed is not just a dignified approach, it is fiscally responsible; homelessness prevention is far less costly than responding to homelessness and its associated complications through emergency shelters, hospitals, and policing.
Therefore, we recommend to:
Strengthen housing stability measures that prevent evictions and reduce homelessness.
Increase investments that help people remain housed, including rent supports and homelessness prevention programs.
Ensure that social assistance and minimum wage policies align with actual housing costs across Ontario.
3) Invest in municipalities to deliver action plans created by Poverty Reduction Strategies, with a focus on food security
Whereas:
Ontario municipalities have been asked to develop Poverty Reduction Strategies and related plans, yet without sustained provincial investment for implementation, municipalities cannot follow through with meaningful action. This is akin to building a house that no one can afford to live in.
Therefore, we recommend to:
Provide stable, multi-year funding to municipalities to implement the priorities identified in Poverty Reduction Strategies, with a dedicated focus on food security outcomes.
Support local food access infrastructure (e.g., community food programs, food distribution capacity, community kitchens, and culturally relevant food initiatives) as part of municipal poverty reduction implementation.
4) Recognize and invest in the nonprofit sector as essential economic infrastructure
Whereas:
Community organizations and nonprofits are a major part of Ontario’s economy and social fabric, and are the backbone of crisis response when provincial systems fall short, supporting residents to access food, housing supports, income navigation, mental health resources, and community connection.
The nonprofit sector continues to be treated as an afterthought in economic planning and investment, despite increasing demand, staffing shortages, and rising operating costs.
Therefore, we recommend to:
Provide sustainable core funding for nonprofit organizations delivering food security and poverty reduction supports.
Invest in workforce stabilization across the nonprofit sector, including fair wages and retention supports.
Reduce administrative burdens and embed multi-year funding agreements that enable planning and long-term impact.
5) Treat food insecurity as a health issue, and fund prevention accordingly
Whereas:
Food insecurity is not only a social issue, it is a major driver of poor health outcomes and avoidable healthcare costs.
Adults and children living in food insecure households experience higher rates of chronic disease, mental health challenges, and higher healthcare utilization, which lead to significant costs within Ontario’s publicly funded healthcare system.
Investment into the conditions that prevent illness (starting with adequate income and access to food), protects healthcare capacity, reduces hallway medicine, and improves population health.
Therefore, we recommend to:
Embed food insecurity reduction targets into public health planning and prevention strategies.
Fund community-based programs that improve food access and reduce barriers, particularly for equity-deserving communities.
Support cross-ministerial coordination so health, housing, and income policy are aligned.
Ontario is not alone in facing affordability pressures, but outcomes differ across Indigenous Territories/Canada. Provinces that have made stronger investments in income support, housing stability, and poverty reduction have demonstrated that policy choices matter, and the health and economic prosperity of their provinces are proof of that. For example, provinces like Quebec and Newfoundland have seen lower poverty rates amongst their residents after investing more in non-market housing and affordable childcare. The Yukon has invested in higher social assistance rates, and as a result, has seen higher housing stability, better mental health, and reduced crisis interventions.
The Ottawa Community Food Partnership urges the Government of Ontario to treat food security as a core outcome of strong public policy, not an inevitable consequence of inflation downloaded to underresourced charities to address. A provincial budget that rebuilds Ontario’s social safety net will not only reduce food insecurity, it will improve health and economic prosperity for all Ontarians.
Poverty reduction is not a social expense; it is economic infrastructure. Provinces that invest upstream in income and housing see downstream savings and stronger, healthier economies.
We would welcome the opportunity to meet with provincial officials to discuss these recommendations and share local insight from Ottawa on effective, community-led solutions.
Sincerely,
Kate Veinot, Stewardship Committee Chair of Ottawa Community Food Partnership
Rebecca Dorris, Coordinator of the Ottawa Community Food Partnership
