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By battlefordsNOW staff

FOOD BANK

Sask. food banks feel the squeeze as tariffs tighten the belt

Mar 6, 2025 | 5:00 PM

Food banks in Saskatchewan are preparing for a rise in demand as a growing trade war between Canada and the United States threatens to push grocery prices higher, making it harder for people to put food on the table.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday pausing tariffs on certain Canadian imports that meet Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement requirements for the auto industry. The order also lowers tariffs on potash to 10 per cent.

With the tariffs set to take full effect soon, Co-op CEO Heather Ryan said in the company’s annual meeting on Monday that grocery prices could rise in the coming days.

“There will be costs if these tariffs come into play and how that plays out remains to be seen,” Ryan said. “If there’s a flat tariff put on things, it does have to be covered at some point. So there will be shared costs. Consumers across North America are going to see an impact to prices.”

Kim Scruby, executive director of the Prince Albert Food Bank, said food banks that rely on purchasing food from the U.S. will feel the squeeze.

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“For buying U.S. products, we have to buy in American dollars,” he said. “If our dollar is falling in value, that alone increases the price for us… Combine that with tariffs — that’s a real double whammy,” he said.

“Plus, with the tariffs going up, if our dollar goes down, a weak dollar also contributes to an inflationary-type situation.”

Ellen Zuk, secretary of the Melfort Food Bank, said demand has already been increasing as food prices climb.

“Our donations are going to go down, and our needs are going to go up,” she said. “We’re starting to see new people here all the time that haven’t used our services before.”

At the Meadow Lake Outreach Ministries, which operates a food bank and soup kitchen, demand is also rising.

“The amount of people we served today was just crazy,” said Dalton Sylvain, executive director of the ministries. “People are demanding more food now.”

He said the food bank is seeing more working-class people come in for help.

“By observing and looking at the different types of people coming here, it’s just telling me that the economy is not in the right shape right now,” he said.

In response to Trump’s threat, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced retaliatory tariffs of 25 per cent on $155 billion worth of American products, with plans to extend them to another $125 billion in U.S. goods in the coming weeks.

With uncertainty over how long the trade war will last, food banks are concerned about sustainability.

“We get no government funding at all,” Zuk added. “Anything that the government would do to help us would be welcome, because they don’t do much for us now.”

Despite the unknown variables, Zuk said they will continue doing what they can to meet demand.

“We’ll just keep sharing what we get in and hoping that we don’t run out of food,” she said.

Sylvain noted that adaptation will be key.

“We are learning how to thrive through difficult situations,” he said.

-with files from 650 CKOM News and The Canadian Press

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Kenneth.Cheung@pattisonmedia.com