Ontario agrees to join National School Food Program

Ontario has reached a major agreement with the federal government to deliver healthy meals to more than 160,000 students in the province.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement on Friday at a press conference in the Greater Toronto Area.

The deal will give Ontario $108.5 million over three years to provide healthy meals and snacks to students at no-cost.

“Canadians are struggling to make ends meet, even as our economy is strong, and that’s why, as a government, we’ve stepped up with concrete ways to support families,” Trudeau told reporters. “Here in Ontario, we’ve now reached a deal that is going to deliver healthy meals to 160,000 Ontario kids [and] more over the coming year.” 

The funding will flow through 13 lead agencies and Indigenous partners who administer existing provincial school food initiatives.

Ontario is the third province to join the national program after Manitoba and Newfoundland, which pushes the federal government almost halfway towards its goal of reaching 400,000 students.

Ahead of the program’s official roll-out at the start of the school year, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre suggested the initiative hadn’t fed a single meal and said, “its purpose is to feed more Liberal bureaucracy.”

The prime minister took time on Friday to criticize Poilievre and the Conservatives for voting against legislation that would have expanded the program.

“It is inexplicable to many people why Pierre Poilievre, who keeps talking about understanding where Canadians are, doesn’t want to actually solve any of the problems that Canadians are facing,” Trudeau quipped. “He just wants to amplify them and convince everyone that Canada is broken.”

The school food program is one of the latest affordability measures launched by the Liberals in recent months to “put more money in people’s pockets,” according to Trudeau.

On Thursday, the prime minister also shared plans to temporarily lift the federal sales tax off a slew of items for two months just in time for Christmas and send cheques to millions of Canadians later this spring. However, in order to get the measures passed through Parliament, the Liberals will need the support of an opposition party.

With files from The Canadian Press.