The Result Of Bad Monetary Policy: Prices Are Going Up In Canada

Many Canadians are feeling the sting in their wallets now that they are seeing higher prices at the grocery store for their basic necessities. Meat prices in Canada are up at least 12 percent over the last year alone. That isn't the only product, the overall cost of food has gone up roughly 4 percent in the country. “There doesn't seem to be any end in sight”, says one Canadian butcher, over the increasing prices. Unfortunately, things are only expected to get much worse as we continually lose purchasing power with our Canadian Loonie and destructive fiat monetary policy; we've already lost over 96 percent.

“Pork prices are so high, more people are buying beef and chicken causing those prices to be higher,” says Windsor, Ontario butcher Ted Farron. Thanks to the increasing cost of pork, Canadians will also see lighter packages of bacon on the shelves. Rather than raising the price of the package, the food companies have been quietly reducing theweight of the bacon in the packs, in an effort to regulate the price and keep it unchanged. Ryan Odette, a restaurant owner from Ontario, says that he's also feeling the sting from the price increases, “meat has become a luxury item” he says. He has subsequently started a loyalty program in order to help customers deal with the rising food costs. Brian Hyland, who sits on the Essex County Federation of Agriculture, is a grain farmer who raises about 40 head of cattle each year outside Windsor, Ontario. Hyland says that today’s beef prices are the highest that he has seen in over 30 years of farming.

Supply, feeding costs, and a myriad of other issues (like the porcine epidemic in the US) have been blamed for the increasing prices on food, which isn't anything new. Similar tactics have been employed previously by the state, in an effort to blame anything but the central planning. Surely these circumstances mentioned above do play some role in the market, but when prices continue to increase year after year, then you can be sure that the negative results you are seeing are a direct result of the failed central planning for the market. The overall lingering reality is that our currency itself breeds inflation and prices can only be expected to get worse. One lingering worry, is that prices are hurting now while gas prices are low, so when oil prices increase then we know that we can expect to see another spike in prices on the shelves. Canada is likely to import over $40 billion worth of food products in 2015 alone. Among the shipment will be a variety of products including fruits and nuts, coffee, fish, chocolate, vegetables, specialty meats, alcohol beverages, and more. Thanks to the weakening dollar, we will also see increases on vegetables, fruits and nuts, and processed foods. 

 As the Bank of Canada continues to operate under the illusion that inflation is a healthy thing for the economy, we can be sure that a solution to this problem isn't coming around the bend anytime soon. This doesn't mean that there aren't efforts being made to change the system, there are solutions being sought (like with the Bank of Canada lawsuit), but we are still a long way off from seeing a strong currency that isn't founded upon debt.