39 | Food Banks Going Hungry (w/ Dan Huang-Taylor, Food Banks BC)

04/23/25 • 22 min

On this edition of Journal, we look at how inflation and higher costs for just about everything, especially housing, are affecting British Columbians.

Right at the pointy end of the stick are our food banks. They are among the first to sense when something is going very wrong. Usually when you say something has had a record-breaking year, it is a good thing. Not so with food banks.

In the last 5 years, visits to food banks in our province rose 81%. One month topped 100,000 visits, the most ever seen since food banks first started some 40 years ago in this province.

Even more concerning is the change in who is coming through the front door. More and more often, it is someone with a job, but a job that can no longer cover the costs of food and housing in BC. Towards the end of the month, many turn to our food banks for help in feeding their families.

As well, according to Dan Levitt, BC’s Seniors Advocate, many older British Columbians are feeling the squeeze, trying to pay their rising bills on a fixed income. Sadly, it is often the cost of food that is one bill too far – thus they turn to our food banks as well.

Food Banks BC is the provincial association of food banks; over a hundred hunger relief agencies belong. As executive director, Dan Huang-Taylor supports the mission to not only meet the emergency short term needs of British Columbians, but also work with others towards a hunger free community – a monumental task to take on.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this edition of Journal, we look at how inflation and higher costs for just about everything, especially housing, are affecting British Columbians.

In the last 5 years, visits to food banks in our province rose 81%. One month topped 100,000 visits, the most ever seen since food banks first started some 40 years ago in this province.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

38 | Breaking Down Trade Barriers (w/ Colin Hansen)

On this episode of Journal, we try to understand the complexity of our interprovincial trade barriers – those infamous barriers everyone is now talking about. One man who knows something about this is Colin Hansen, one of British Columbia’s most accomplished politicians.

In Gordon Campbell’s governments, he served as Minister of Health, Finance Minister, Minister of Economic Development, Minister responsible for the Asia Pacific and the Olympics, back to Finance after I left, and then was named Deputy Premier.

One of his most challenging assignments was to tackle the interprovincial trade barriers between BC and Alberta.

Today we have the prime minister, most premiers, and many business people responding to Trump’s ever-changing tariff threats by recognizing that it’s sometimes harder to trade with our own provinces than it is to do business with the United States – thus, the renewed call for free trade within Canada.

Sounds good. I’m all for it, but it is not easy. I watched Colin Hansen struggle in 2006 trying to get a free trade agreement with just one province, Alberta.

Why can’t our doctors, nurses, engineers, etc. automatically have their credentials accepted in every province?

Whose standards for food safety or environmental requirements will be accepted?

I remember during Colin Hansen’s negotiations, there was a moment when we ran into a roadblock – literally – over the size of truck tires, which are different in each province.

So I applaud the words that are being said. It is the right thing to do. But turning those words into action will not be quick. Every province will have their own list of non-negotiables.

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