The Trudeau government’s grocery rebate, which they claim will help Canadians’ food bills amid the inflation crisis, is being mocked and ridiculed by Canadians on social media.
Most Canadians aren’t eligible for the so-called ‘grocery rebate’ because it caps household and individual incomes at $38,000 and $32,000, respectively.
The Liberals introduced the grocery rebate, which will be tacked onto eligible Canadians next quarterly GST/HST payments, in the 2023 Budget and the party estimates it will be distributed to about 11 million Canadians.
Under the rebate guidelines, Canadians with four children will receive as much as $628 on top of their GST payment, while those with three children are entitled up to $548.
Canadians with two children will receive an extra $467, while those with one child will get $387, and those without children are entitled to $234.
Seniors will also receive $225.
The rebate is being sold as a way to offset inflation, which declined to 3.4% in May from 4.4% a month earlier, but it won’t realistically make a dent as the price of food has surged by 9% in the last year.
The government took to social media to showcase the ‘grocery rebate’ on Wednesday.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland tweeted news of the rebate, prompting Matt Strauss, a physician and journalist who has been critical of the Trudeau government’s pandemic policies, to tweet:
“1) Confiscate $327 billions of taxpayer money 2) Skim $13 billion for the Porsche family, $1 billion for the Kielburgers, $250,000 for Margaret Trudeau speeches, $6,000/night for Justin’s fancy hotels 3) Give hungry seniors $225 to buy groceries 4) Tweet about it.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted a photo-op at a grocery store in Saint-Hyacinthe that was swiftly met with a deluge of sarcastic, even angry tweets. Some users accused him of enacting policies that created inflation.
“Look at this beautiful high-end grocery store. Does anyone who qualified for that rebate even shop there? Bro couldn’t find a Food Basics or No Frills…,” wrote one user.
Others pointed out how out of touch the prime minister is.
“Can you understand why Canadians might resent paying for all of your transportation, groceries, servants, jet-setting holidays, and on & on, when you impose useless carbon taxes on us which don’t affect you at all, yet cause great hardships for ordinary Canadians?” one user tweeted at the prime minister.
The grocery rebate was also scathed for its inability to make a dent in the affordability crisis afflicting greater swaths of the country.
“Wow, delivering hundreds of dollars in support to 11 million Canadians? That’s cute. Maybe instead of throwing pocket change, you could focus on actually fixing the affordability crisis in Canada. Just a thought,” wrote one user.
