Bill C-322

National Framework for a School Food Program Act

An Act to develop a national framework to establish a school food program

This enactment provides for the development of a national framework to establish a school food program to ensure that all children in Canada have access to healthy food.

National Framework for a School Food Program Act

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Madam Speaker, they say that public education is the great social leveller, yet we know that kids cannot access the promise of education if they are hungry. Today, millions of kids across our country are going to school without food in their bellies. This is something we can change. The bill before us, Bill C-322, can be a part of a change toward the creation of a nationwide school food program that will provide healthy meals to kids going to school right across Canada.

There are many reasons why we should pursue a national school food program. I was looking at a study from The Rockefeller Foundation showing that in the United States, the $18.7-billion investment in school meal programs provides a return on investment of $40 billion. Perhaps for some people those kinds of numbers are motivating, but I think there is a much more profound reason we need to do this: Access to healthy food for kids is a human right. Kids deserve to access the promise of education with food in their bellies. Far too many, millions of kids across our country, are not able to do so.

That is why we in the NDP have long called for a national school food program. I want to particularly highlight the work of the member for Vancouver Kingsway, who tabled Bill C-212 in 2021 on a national school food program, and also our excellent critic, the member for Winnipeg Centre, who has been working tirelessly on this issue in her role as the critic for children, families and social development.

Canada is not doing well when it comes to the provision of school food. Right now, Canada is the only G7 country that lacks a national school food program. Among the OECD countries, we are one of only a few countries that lack such a program. A 2017 study by UNICEF ranked us 37th out of 41 countries. These are 41 of the richest countries in the world, and we are ranked 37th when it comes to the provision of school meals. This is something we need to do much better on.

Right now, the situation in Canada is a patchwork of programs that are held together by NGOs, volunteers, schools and private donors. They are working so hard to ensure that kids can have healthy meals at school, yet we know it is not meeting the need that exists in our country, despite their tireless efforts. That is why the federal government has a responsibility to come forward with a fully national school food program that meets the needs of kids.

I mentioned the situation in Canada. Every province and territory has some semblance of funding for school meal programs. Unfortunately, that funding is falling far short, between three cents and 94¢ per person, per meal. I think anyone in this House who has bought food recently can say this is not nearly enough to ensure that kids are getting nutritious food at school.

Right now, this is a particularly pertinent issue because we have seen the cost of food skyrocket. With the profits of the grocery giants going through the roof, more and more Canadians are struggling to put food on the table. School food programs, given the existing patchwork, are even having a hard time affording the food they need to provide the level of school meals they are currently providing, not to mention meeting the needs that exist across the country.

In my home province of British Columbia, we are very fortunate that the NDP provincial government just recently announced a historic program, Feeding Futures. This is a $214-million school food program over three years. It is the largest investment in a school meal program in Canadian history. It is making a difference right across our province, with school districts now able to increase existing programs and create new programs where none existed.

We need the federal government to come to the table as a partner. This bill in front of us, Bill C-322, can be a contribution in that direction.

I will mention that it has taken a long time to get to this point. Of course, the Liberal Party, in 2019, committed to investing in a school food program. It did not put a dollar value to it.

In 2021, we saw in the Liberal platform that the government would commit $1 billion over five years. That was two years ago. Just imagine all the kids across our country who could have been fed over the past two years if those dollars had flowed and that commitment had been made real with a budget commitment. We are hopeful that budget 2024 will include these necessary dollars so that the patchwork of programs across the country can get the funding needed to deliver more meals.

This vision for a national school food program needs to be universal. It should not be just for kids who are not getting adequate food at home. It should be for all kids so that we are not stigmatizing those who come from more disadvantaged backgrounds. We know that it needs to be cost-shared with the provinces, and it should be free or low-cost for the kids participating in the programs. It also needs to support indigenous food sovereignty and local food production. Those are the characteristics I hope would be reflected in a national school food program created under the terms of the bill before us. This could make our country stronger. When we do it, we will be better for it in so many different ways.

I had my eyes opened to the potential of school food programs two years ago when I visited Suwilaawks Community School in Terrace, in northwest B.C. I visited Suwilaawks with a number of people, including Sam from the Coalition for Healthy School Food, Margo from Farm to School and the principal of Suwilaawks. They showed me the school food program there, and it was tremendously impressive.

I got to go into the kitchen and watch little kids lined up to get homemade soup and fry bread, which had been made by a volunteer named Janis Sharyk Fowler, who has been volunteering at the school for 12 years, and one of the indigenous support workers at the school, Colleen Morgan. She is fondly known as Grammie Colleen to the kids. She got up at seven o'clock that morning to make over 200 pieces of fry bread. Seeing the joy on the children's faces when they came into the school to get this food really brought home the potential of these programs to give kids the nutritious food they deserve so they can learn in our schools.

I would be remiss if I did not also highlight the work of another tireless volunteer in the Terrace area, and that is Gurjeet Parhar. Gurjeet has been working on local food programs and food security for so long through the Kalum Community School Society. The Kalum Community School Society has been delivering a good food box and a food-share program in communities from Dease Lake and Telegraph Creek in northern B.C., all the way down to Bella Coola and over to Haida Gwaii. She has been a tireless proponent of school food programs. I want to thank her for her incredible work across the northwest.

This is an idea whose time has come. It is time for us to move quickly now. There have been far too many delays in getting a national school food program up and running. We need this billion-dollar commitment over five years to hit the ground and to match the funds that are being brought forward by provinces such as my home province of British Columbia. We can improve Canada's standing among peer nations. We can get nutritious, healthy school food to kids right across our country and make our country stronger as a result. We can uphold the human rights of these kids who are going to school hungry.

In a country as rich as ours, we should do no less. We should make every effort to ensure that our children and children in communities all across this nation have the school food they deserve and need to learn.

[Ben Carr, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise today and support Bill C-322, an act to develop a national framework to establish a school food program.

I want to thank my colleague, the member for Acadie—Bathurst, for introducing the bill.

I enjoyed a career as a teacher, a principal, a divisional principal and a coach. During that time, I had the opportunity to work with thousands of students, their families and educators from across Manitoba. I grew to understand the importance of being well fed and having nutritious options available during the school day, before it begins and when it ends.

Nutritious food and its availability is important for a number of reasons for a student: energy, concentration and attention span, sense of self, and a general positive outlook each and every day. As mentioned by my colleague across the way a moment ago, Canada is the only country in the G7 without a national standard or framework on nutrition programs in schools. I want to be very clear, before moving on to some other elements of my remarks this evening, that we understand provincial jurisdiction over the vast majority of education in Canada. This bill serves as a catalyst for all levels of government to work together for the well-being of young people across the country.

I understand that, as my hon. Bloc Québécois colleague said a few minutes ago, education is under provincial jurisdiction. At the same time, I think there are many examples of how collaboration among several levels of government can lead to positive policies in Canada. I think this bill is no different. This is an opportunity to work together.

I want to read some words that were shared with me by Alan Campbell, a fellow Manitoban, who serves as the current president of the Canadian School Boards Association. In my brief time in Parliament thus far, I have tried my best to include the remarks of folks who live where I come from, because I believe that it is my responsibility, and our responsibility here, to reflect their voices back to Canadians through this chamber and the roles we occupy.

Mr. Campbell had the following to say with respect to this bill, “Local school boards across the country are ready and willing to work with our provincial and federal governments on the creation of a national framework for a school food program. Recognizing that in many rural and urban communities across the country, existing school nutrition programs already function with direct support from local charitable organizations and school boards, there are already many highly successful models on which to build in order to rapidly create a framework for a universally accessible school food program in all schools across Canada.”

He went on to say, “In Manitoba, school boards point to the long-standing success of the Child Nutrition Council of Manitoba...a charitable organization which for decades, has partnered with the Manitoba School Boards Association as well as the public and private sectors in delivery of strong and sustainable nutrition programs in many Manitoba schools. The newly elected [Premier of Manitoba] Wab Kinew [and his] government...[have] committed to working with school boards and the CNCM to expedite more food programs to more schools, and this partnership in Manitoba may well serve to [positively] inform the development of the national framework as sought out in...[this bill].”

I spoke just yesterday to Premier Kinew and informed him that I would be talking about this matter in the chamber today. He simply wanted me to reiterate that the values of the Government of Manitoba are aligned with the intentions of this bill. We will be proud to work with him and his government in an effort to see it pass and to deliver for children across the country.

I want to turn for a moment to the disproportionate impacts facing indigenous communities in Manitoba as they pertain to poverty. I note that a few of my colleagues here and my colleague from Winnipeg Centre would know the tragic nature of these statistics very well.

The graduation rate for first nations students in Manitoba has been as low as 50% in recent years. This can be compared to the rate of roughly 95% for non-indigenous students in the public system in Manitoba. Out of the 11,000 kids in Manitoba who live in the child welfare system, 90% of them are indigenous. Therefore, key to reconciliation, key to doing our part to deal with the tragic consequences that poverty brings to communities, and as I just mentioned, disproportionately to indigenous communities in Winnipeg and in Manitoba, is that we must look towards how we can deal with nutrition.

There are also many opportunities here, again key to reconciliation, to include indigenous values and perspectives as they relate to food, diet and health, and how those things are reflected in curriculum. There are ways for us to embed indigenous teachings and world views in the Healthy Food in Schools website, curricula and conversations.

I have grown to admire the work of a grassroots organization called Teach For Canada, which is doing wonderful work to develop and support education on reserve in Canada's northern communities. Here is what their executive director, Ken Sanderson, offered as commentary with respect to this bill. He said, “In championing Bill C-322 and the creation of a national school food program, it's crucial to recognize the ongoing inequities faced by First Nations. ‘Teach For Canada-Gakinaamaage,’ with its mission to address educational disparities in First Nations, underscores the interconnected nature of these challenges, emphasizing the need for a localized, community-driven approach to achieving student success in the classroom. To truly commit to ending child hunger, we must prioritize community consultation and tailor our efforts to create a well-rounded learning environment that addresses the linked needs of education and nourishment. This requires a nuanced approach that considers factors like food costs, insecurity, and the need for culturally sensitive, Indigenous-informed nutrition.”

My former employer, the Winnipeg School Division, where I got my start as a teacher some years ago, is the largest school division in the city of Winnipeg and, indeed, in the province of Manitoba. Many of its schools are located in my riding, and many of the staff who work in them reside there. The Winnipeg School Division continues to provide nutrition programs throughout its 79 schools, and in my riding, Gladstone School offers a robust breakfast program that ensures all learners are prepared to learn. The challenge is that most nutrition programs are supported by limited grants and the goodwill of charities. If we want to create a robust society, it is important to provide all learners, not only in the Winnipeg School Division but also all over Canada, with a targeted and sustainable source of nutritional food.

In my home province of Manitoba, the government funds the Child Nutrition Council of Manitoba, which I referred to earlier, and it provides grants to schools. In 2021-22, these grants supported close to 34,000 children through 302 programs. As a principal, I used to apply for these grants on behalf of students, and they are wonderful. They provide an incredible amount of support that is desperately needed for young people; however, it is not enough. I watched the impact that these programs had on students in schools where I worked, schools where colleagues of mine worked and schools that my friends' kids went to, and it reinforced the importance of having at our disposal this type of support to make sure that kids have a positive experience in school.

In closing, I will reiterate the urgency of implementing a national school food program. I hope that we will be able to find bipartisan support in this chamber for this piece of legislation. I know that there are areas in which my colleagues and I may disagree, such as about the source of inflation and what is driving the cost of living and affordability in this country, but I do think that we can agree on the importance of ensuring that these programs exist.

When federal and provincial governments work together, great things can happen for Canada. We have seen this on deals ranging from child care to health transfers and efforts to combat climate change. I hope that Bill C-322 will afford us another opportunity to do just that.

[Damien Kurek, Conservative, Battle River—Crowfoot, AB]

Madam Speaker, as always, it is an honour to stand in this place to debate the issues that are so important to Canadians.

Since we are talking about an issue that deals with education, and I will get to the substance of the bill in a moment, I want to give a shout-out to a young lady from B.C. whose name is Abigail. I had a chance to have a visit with her in the hallway prior to coming into this debate, and she informed me that she plans to be Canada's second female prime minister. I send a big shout-out to Abigail, a very bright young lady in elementary school. It just speaks to the incredible potential that exists across this country in our young people.

We are talking about one of the fundamental issues our country is facing, which is the affordability of food. There are three things I hope to be able to address in the short time I have here before us. The first is that, when it comes to the idea of a school lunch program, the idea of this sort of thing sounds great. However, as with many things that get talked about in the nation's capital, studies, reports and frameworks in this case do not feed kids.

I will start by emphasizing something because our country needs real action to ensure we can address the affordability crisis so many are facing. It is leading to kids going to school hungry and families making difficult decisions about whether to pay for rent, home heating or groceries. The first point I would like to make in this debate tonight is that food has become unaffordable for so many in our country, and it should not be that way.

Let me emphasize how fundamentally advantaged Canada is when it comes to being a producer of high-quality food products. We have the space, the capacity, the expertise and the experience to produce the world-class, quality food people need not only here in our own country but also around the world. Certainly it is a travesty that we are seeing approximately two million visits to food banks per month in our country when we have been blessed with such incredible capacity here at home. It is truly a tragedy.

We see the underlying causes of that. The fact that we have to talk about some of the issues surrounding kids going to school hungry is absolutely tragic. However, we have before us a very simple step in the right direction. It is a bill, currently sitting in the Senate, that would address some of the challenges, and it is the common-sense Conservative bill, Bill C-234, which would remove the carbon tax on all types of farm fuels and home heating. It would allow for the price of food to be brought down in our country. It would ultimately help families, our people from coast to coast to coast, because of course our north is deeply affected by the price of food, yet the bill is unfortunately being stalled.

We have to ensure that folks are able to have prosperous jobs, so we can address some of the challenges we are talking about. It has been raised several times in the debate tonight, and it is fundamentally important. In the short time I have, I will get into some of the jurisdictional challenges momentarily, but we have to acknowledge how important it is to ensure our society functions well, for civil society begins to deteriorate when people cannot afford food. The actions of left-leaning ideologies are directly forcing prices in this country to rise, and that is truly a travesty.

As a fifth-generation farmer of on my family's farm in Alberta's special areas, I was discouraged today by the fact that the Prime Minister did not offer support for farmers but said he will meet with them to tell them how they should or should not do their business. Truly, it is that attitude that farmers do not need. Left-leaning ideologies need to get out of the way to let farmers grow crops and raise livestock to ensure we have that high-quality food.

The second point I will make in the short time I have is that this bill is actually an admission of Liberal failure. In two of their election platforms, I believe in 2015 and 2021, the Liberals promised to have a national lunch program, yet they were unable to fulfill that. This is an admission of that failure. I would—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Unfortunately, I have to interrupt the hon. member. We need to allow for the reply.

The hon. member for Acadie—Bathurst has five minutes for his right of reply.

[Serge Cormier, Liberal, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Madam Speaker, it is definitely going to be difficult to summarize the two hours of debate that we have had on my bill in five minutes.

I would like to thank all of my colleagues from the various parties who spoke to this very important bill, which could change the lives of the children in our society. As I said in my speech, I think that this bill is one of the most important pieces of legislation that we will debate this session.

It is 2023. I would like us to just take a moment to think about these striking examples. Many children go to school hungry. They do not have any breakfast or lunch, and they do not even have a snack at school. One in five children say that they do not have enough to eat at home. Within first nations communities, 50% of households say that they struggle to feed their family. We are one of the only countries in the G7 that does not have a school food program. In some provinces and territories, there are some schools that get funding for school food programs while others do not, which means that some children are falling through the cracks.

These few striking examples demonstrate why we need to have a framework, a national program in our schools, to ensure that our young people do not go to school hungry, do not have to think about being unable to learn and can stop worrying about not having anything in their lunch box.

I know that some of my colleagues and some parties have concerns about their respective provincial jurisdictions. We know that education is a provincial jurisdiction, but my bill makes it very clear that we will need to work with the provinces and territories to create a national program. We are going to respect those areas of jurisdiction, and that is why we are going to engage in discussions with the provinces and territories.

This morning, I was fortunate to be invited to make a presentation to the Coalition for Healthy School Food. I want to thank all these groups for their extraordinary work over the past several years to ensure that we have school food programs in our schools across Canada.

This bill is also too important to politicize. I find it disappointing to hear some of my Conservative colleagues say that if there were no price on pollution, no price on carbon, we would not need school food programs.

In 1982, 42 years ago, I was in grade one. There was no price on pollution, but interest rates were high. Some of my friends beside me did not have anything to eat. This is not a new problem, and that is why we need to address it.

I humbly ask all my colleagues in the House to support this bill. They should not do it for me, but they should do it for our children, for our young people in our schools who need a school food program, who need to stop worrying about going to school with an empty stomach. What we are doing here is trying to make life better for these children and their families. I hope my colleagues from the various parties will support my bill.

I am very pleased to have had the opportunity to introduce this bill in the House. Once again, I would like to thank everyone who spoke to it.

I hope the bill can move on to the next stage.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The question is on the motion.

If a member participating in person wishes that the motion be carried or carried on division or if a member of a recognized party participating in person wishes to request a recorded division, I would invite them to rise and indicate it to the Chair.

The hon. parliamentary secretary to the government House leader.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Madam Speaker, we would request a recorded vote, please.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Pursuant to Standing Order 93, the recorded division stands deferred until Wednesday, December 6, at the expiry of the time provided for Oral Questions.