I recently came across some data on food insecurity published by Statistics Canada.
Released back in May, this data demonstrates food insecurity for each province, as well as the country as a whole. So, I decided to see how Alberta performed on food insecurity in comparison with the other provinces.
The data goes to only 2023 and is part of the data collected through the Canadian Income Survey 2023. We will have to wait until next May to get 2024 data.
First, we should define what food insecurity is, since not everyone reading this article may be familiar with the term. It is the inadequate or insecure access to food due to financial constraints.
For the purposes of this dataset, it looks at food insecurity during the 12-month period prior to participating in the Canadian Income Survey.
Here is how each province performed in 2023. Remember, this is 2023 data, so it could be worse (or even better) now.
| AB | 30.9% |
| SK | 30.6% |
| NL | 30.1% |
| NB | 29.5% |
| NS | 29.3% |
| ON | 26.4% |
| MB | 25.6% |
| PEI | 24.6% |
| BC | 24.4% |
| QC | 19.8% |
The number of persons living in food insecure households was highest in Alberta, with nearly 31% having inadequate access to food because of financial constraints.
Saskatchewan joined Newfoundland and Labrador in the higher-than-30% club with Alberta. The two of them had the second and third-highest percentage, respectively, of people living in food insecure households.
Québec came in last place, with less than 20% of persons living in a food insecure household.
Alberta was 11.1 percentage points ahead of Québec and 4.6 percentage points ahead of the national rate, which was 25.5%.
Interestingly, Alberta is also in first place for those living in households with marginal and severe food security and fourth place for those living with moderate food insecurity.
| Marginal | Moderate | Severe | |
| NL | 6.2% | 15.7% | 8.3% |
| PEI | 5.7% | 11.0% | 8.0% |
| NS | 8.0% | 13.0% | 8.4% |
| NB | 7.2% | 14.1% | 8.2% |
| QC | 6.3% | 9.8% | 3.7% |
| ON | 5.7% | 13.3% | 7.4% |
| MB | 5.7% | 12.9% | 7.0% |
| SK | 7.5% | 14.8% | 8.3% |
| AB | 8.5% | 13.7% | 8.7% |
| BC | 5.9% | 11.6% | 6.9% |
For marginal food insecurity, Alberta was 2.1 points above the national rate and 2.8 points above Manitoba, which had the lowest rate.
Even though Alberta was in fourth place for moderate food insecurity, it was still 1.3 points above the national rate and 3.9 points above Québec, which had the lower. Alberta was 2 points behind Newfoundland and Labrador, which had the highest rate.
Alberta’s 8.7% of persons living in households experiencing severe food insecurity was 2 points above the national rate and 5 points above Québec, which was in last place.
StatsCan’s dataset goes back to only 2018, but it still allows us to see how things have changed for each province.
| 2018 | 2023 | Change | % change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SK | 17.2 | 30.6 | 13.4 | 77.91% |
| NB | 17.8 | 29.5 | 11.7 | 65.73% |
| AB | 19.2 | 30.9 | 11.7 | 60.94% |
| NL | 18.9 | 30.1 | 11.2 | 59.26% |
| ON | 17.0 | 26.4 | 9.4 | 55.29% |
| BC | 16.2 | 24.4 | 8.2 | 50.62% |
| PEI | 17.3 | 24.6 | 7.3 | 42.20% |
| NS | 20.9 | 29.3 | 8.4 | 40.19% |
| QC | 14.4 | 19.8 | 5.4 | 37.50% |
| MB | 19.1 | 25.6 | 6.5 | 34.03% |
The table above shows how overall food insecurity has changed for each province. Saskatchewan had the highest change and the highest percentage change. Alberta was tied with New Brunswick for the second highest change (11.7 points), but had the third highest percentage change (60.94%)
Only four provinces had percentage changes that were below 50%.
When we look at just marginal food insecurity, Alberta has seen the highest increase of all the provinces, rising by 3.2 points or 60.38% since 2018.
| AB | 5.3 | 8.5 | 3.2 | 60.38% |
| NS | 5.4 | 8.0 | 2.6 | 48.15% |
| SK | 5.5 | 7.5 | 2.0 | 36.36% |
| NB | 5.1 | 7.2 | 2.1 | 41.18% |
| QC | 5.2 | 6.3 | 1.1 | 21.15% |
| NL | 6.9 | 6.2 | -0.7 | -10.14% |
| BC | 4.5 | 5.9 | 1.4 | 31.11% |
| PEI | 5.0 | 5.7 | 0.7 | 14.00% |
| ON | 5.2 | 5.7 | 0.5 | 9.62% |
| MB | 5.5 | 5.7 | 0.2 | 3.64% |
Newfoundland and Labrador was the only province to see an improvement in marginal food insecurity, which decreased by 0.7 points, or 10.14%.
Things improve for Alberta when looking at moderate food insecurity, which should not be that surprising, since we had the 4th highest level of all the provinces in 2023.
| 2018 | 2023 | Change | % change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL | 8.0 | 15.7 | 7.7 | 96.25% |
| SK | 8.1 | 14.8 | 6.7 | 82.72% |
| NB | 8.0 | 14.1 | 6.1 | 76.25% |
| AB | 8.4 | 13.7 | 5.3 | 63.10% |
| ON | 8.3 | 13.3 | 5.0 | 60.24% |
| NS | 9.6 | 13.0 | 3.4 | 35.42% |
| MB | 8.6 | 12.9 | 4.3 | 50.00% |
| BC | 8.0 | 11.6 | 3.6 | 45.00% |
| PEI | 7.4 | 11.0 | 3.6 | 48.65% |
| QC | 7.0 | 9.8 | 2.8 | 40.00% |
Between 2018 and 2023, Alberta saw their moderate food insecurity rate increase by 5.3 points, or 63.10%, placing it in 4th place.
Finally, here are the provinces showing change in severe food insecurity.
| 2018 | 2023 | Change | % change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SK | 3.6 | 8.3 | 4.7 | 130.56% |
| ON | 3.5 | 7.4 | 3.9 | 111.43% |
| NL | 4.0 | 8.3 | 4.3 | 107.50% |
| BC | 3.7 | 6.9 | 3.2 | 86.49% |
| NB | 4.7 | 8.2 | 3.5 | 74.47% |
| QC | 2.2 | 3.7 | 1.5 | 68.18% |
| PEI | 4.9 | 8.0 | 3.1 | 63.27% |
| AB | 5.5 | 8.7 | 3.2 | 58.18% |
| NS | 5.9 | 8.4 | 2.5 | 42.37% |
| MB | 5.0 | 7.0 | 2.0 | 40.00% |
Even though Alberta had the highest percentage of persons living in a household experiencing severe food insecurity, they actually had the third lowest increase since 2018.
Three provinces—Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Newfoundland and Labrador—more than doubled their percentages of people living in severe food insecurity,
So, for the 1 in 11 people in Alberta who are experiencing severe food insecurity, they can take comfort in the fact that the number of people living in severe food insecurity is increasing faster in most other provinces.
I should point out that even though Alberta had the third lowest increase in severe food insecurity, it still increased by more than half, nearly 60%.
And here is something interesting.
Alberta was 1 of 3 provinces that saw a huge drop in food insecurity between 2018 and 2019, dropping 1.6 percentage points. So, if we compare 2023 data to after that drop, rather than before it, Alberta jumps from 3rd lowest increase to 3rd highest increase.
| 2019 | 2023 | Change | % change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL | 3.0 | 8.3 | 5.3 | 176.67% |
| SK | 3.5 | 8.3 | 4.8 | 137.14% |
| AB | 3.9 | 8.7 | 4.8 | 123.08% |
| NB | 3.7 | 8.2 | 4.5 | 121.62% |
| ON | 3.5 | 7.4 | 3.9 | 111.43% |
| MB | 3.4 | 7.0 | 3.6 | 105.88% |
| BC | 3.5 | 6.9 | 3.4 | 97.14% |
| NS | 4.3 | 8.4 | 4.1 | 95.35% |
| QC | 2.0 | 3.7 | 1.7 | 85.00% |
| PEI | 4.5 | 8.0 | 3.5 | 77.78% |
Alberta’s poor performance in food insecurity is evident in food bank usage.
This past October, Food Banks Canada released their Hunger Count 2025 report. I went through their data to see how Alberta compared to the other provinces in food bank usage, especially for 2024 and 2025.
And it is not good news.
When looking at total reported visits to food banks in 2025, Alberta had the fourth largest number of visits, which should not be that surprising, given that we have the fourth largest population.
| ON | 763,756 |
| QC | 746,411 |
| BC | 223,340 |
| AB | 210,541 |
| MB | 64,975 |
| SK | 55,310 |
| NS | 43,421 |
| NB | 32,343 |
| NL | 15,422 |
| PEI | 5,350 |
However, when we look at the change in food bank visits since last year, Alberta actually saw the largest increase.
| AB | 21.8% |
| MB | 17.1% |
| NS | 10.3% |
| NL | 8.3% |
| SK | 4.6% |
| ON | 3.7% |
| QC | 3.5% |
| NB | 0.5% |
| BC | -1.0% |
| PEI | -1.6% |
British Columbia and Prince Edward Island were the only provinces to see a decrease in food bank usage over the last year.
Just 3 provinces—Alberta, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia—saw an increase in usage that was over 10%, and Alberta’s was the only one over 20%.
It is even worse when we compare back to 2019.
| AB | 134.4% |
| ON | 124.9% |
| QC | 116.2% |
| PEI | 80.8% |
| BC | 79.1% |
| NS | 69.4% |
| SK | 48.6% |
| NB | 45.3% |
| NL | 44.1% |
| MB | — |
Every province has since an increase in food bank usage since 2019, but Alberta had, by far, the largest increase, at 134.4%.
No other province was above 130%, and only two other provinces—Ontario and Québec—were above 100%. That means only 3 provinces doubled the number of food bank visits since 2019, and Alberta led the way.
When we look at the number of reported visits per participating food bank, Alberta comes in second place behind British Columbia.
| Visits | Food banks | Visits/food bank | |
|---|---|---|---|
| BC | 223,340 | 131 | 1704.89 |
| AB | 210,541 | 127 | 1657.80 |
| SK | 55,310 | 41 | 1349.02 |
| ON | 763,756 | 619 | 1233.85 |
| PEI | 5,350 | 8 | 668.75 |
| MB | 64,975 | 115 | 565.00 |
| QC | 746,411 | 1395 | 535.06 |
| NB | 32,343 | 68 | 475.63 |
| NS | 43,421 | 144 | 301.53 |
| NL | 15,422 | 64 | 240.97 |
I find it interesting that the third and fourth most populous provinces have the most and secondmost visits per food bank.
Alberta is also second highest when measuring the number of meals and snacks provided per food bank.
| Food banks | Meals & snacks provided | Meals/food bank | |
|---|---|---|---|
| QC | 1395 | 2,352,639 | 3.15 |
| AB | 127 | 602,859 | 2.86 |
| MB | 115 | 173,092 | 2.66 |
| NB | 68 | 68,830 | 2.13 |
| NS | 144 | 87,191 | 2.01 |
| ON | 619 | 1,097,330 | 1.44 |
| NL | 64 | 17,320 | 1.12 |
| PEI | 8 | 4,301 | 0.80 |
| BC | 131 | 106,914 | 0.48 |
| SK | 41 | 11,880 | 0.21 |
Keep in mind that this does not include hamper programmes.
I want to point out that there is no evidence in this report that these numbers are not directly caused by any policy implemented by the United Conservative Party government in power in Alberta.
On the flip side, however, it is also pretty clear that none of the UCP’s policies seem to be improving food insecurity or the need to use the food bank.
