Food inflation in Canada is once again moving in the wrong direction. In November, it rose to 4.2%, up from 3.4% the previous month. More troubling still, inflation for food purchased in stores climbed to 4.7%, the highest level since December 2023. For households already stretched thin, these numbers are not noise — they are signals.

A comparison across the G7 underscores Canada’s vulnerability. The gap between food inflation and overall inflation — a measure of whether food prices are rising faster than the broader economy — places Canada near the top of advanced economies. Only Japan shows a larger divergence. Canada’s gap stands at plus-2%, compared with plus-1.3% in the United Kingdom, plus-1.1% in Italy and plus-0.5% in France. In the United States, the gap is negligible (plus-0.1%), while in Germany food inflation is running below overall inflation (minus-0.5%).

When food inflation persistently outpaces