{"id":182459,"date":"2018-09-22T00:26:12","date_gmt":"2018-09-22T04:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=182459"},"modified":"2018-09-22T00:26:12","modified_gmt":"2018-09-22T04:26:12","slug":"liberal-leader-doubles-notion-75-weekly-grocery-bill-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/09\/22\/liberal-leader-doubles-notion-75-weekly-grocery-bill-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberal leader doubles down on notion that $75 weekly grocery bill is possible"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Asked again Friday on Montreal’s 98.5 FM, Couillard said he wished people didn’t have to live on such a tight budget, but he knows some who do. (File Photo<\/a>: Philippe Couillard\/ Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MONTREAL \u2014 Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard is standing by his claim that $75 is enough for a family of three to feed itself for a week, saying it just requires a lot of work and an eye for bargains.<\/p>\n

When presented the grocery question out of the blue Thursday by a radio host, Couillard answered it would be possible to feed an adult and two teenagers on that amount, acknowledging later to reporters the menu would lack meat and variety.<\/p>\n

Asked again Friday on Montreal’s 98.5 FM, Couillard said he wished people didn’t have to live on such a tight budget, but he knows some who do.<\/p>\n

“You look through all the flyers, and you shop only for what is on sale,” Couillard said. “It’s almost a full-time job.”<\/p>\n

He gave the example of a roast pork bought on special that is used in macaroni the next day, shepherd’s pie the third day and sandwiches the day after.<\/p>\n

One of the authors of Canada’s Food Price Report said $75 would not suffice.<\/p>\n

Dalhousie University Prof. Sylvain Charlebois said that in 2017 the bare minimum grocery bill for a\u00a0Quebec\u00a0family of two adults and two children, including one teen, would have been $149 a week, double the amount in Couillard’s example for three people.<\/p>\n

“If you live on your own, maybe, but if you have children in your home who are growing, it’s absolutely impossible,” Charlebois said.<\/p>\n

The only way to make it work on $75 would be to resort to food banks, he said. Otherwise the family would “end up with a diet that has no variety, and the nutritional value would be severely compromised.”<\/p>\n

Accused by his political opponents of being out of touch, Couillard told reporters Friday he did not regret his answer, adding the debate has shed a light on the need to fight poverty.<\/p>\n

“No, I said the truth,” Couillard said. “The question was, ‘Is it feasible?’ Yes it’s feasible. I know people who do that. Is it good? No.”<\/p>\n

It is not the first time a question about groceries has tripped up a politician.<\/p>\n

In the United States, George H.W. Bush admitted in a 1992 presidential debate with Bill Clinton and Ross Perot he didn’t know how much a gallon of milk cost.<\/p>\n

In 2007, Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani was way off when quizzed on the cost of a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread.<\/p>\n

Just last month, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed erroneously that photo identification is needed to buy groceries.<\/p>\n

Sam Watts, managing director of a Montreal food bank that provides groceries to 19,000 clients a month, said a family’s diet would be limited on $75 a week.<\/p>\n

“The issue is healthy food,” said Watts, who works at The Welcome Hall Mission.<\/p>\n

“Someone could eat macaroni seven days a week, but that’s not a good diet, and the result is it would create other problems the health system would have to resolve.”<\/p>\n

Wendy Gariepy of the West Island Mission, which serves Montreal’s western communities, called a $75 grocery budget “really tight” and put the mimimum closer to $125.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0Quebec\u00a0family of four last year spent on average $233 a week on groceries, Charlebois said, the third-most per capita after Saskatchewan and British Columbia.<\/p>\n

“But in\u00a0Quebec, salaries are much lower, so the percentage of the food budget based on income is much higher than anywhere else,” Charlebois added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2014 Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard is standing by his claim that $75 is enough for a family of three …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":88335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-sidhartha-banerjee","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}