The federal minister of jobs and families says a 'significant number of people' in Windsor-Essex will be eligible to receive the new Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit.
Patty Hajdu touted the new benefit Wednesday during a tour of the UHC-Hub of Opportunities in Windsor.
Hajdu says in Windsor-Lakeshore-Tecumseh, almost 43,000 individuals will be eligible; in Windsor West, almost 59,000 will be eligible, while another 32,000 people in Essex will be eligible.
"Lots of people who are really going to need this benefit and hopefully feel a little bit more relief," she says.
Under the new benefit, the quarterly GST payments will see an increase of 25 per cent over the next five years and will also include a one-time top-up of 50 per cent this year.
Canadians who receive the GST benefit will get a one-time top-up payment as soon as this spring after parliamentarians fast-tracked the legislation to set it in motion.
Hajdu says it's intended to take the sting out of inflation.
"It's there for five years because we want to provide a base of security for people as we work our way through this trade war," she says.
CEO of UHC Hub of Opportunities and President of the Windsor-Essex Food Bank Association, June Muir, says they welcome this benefit.
"This benefit is going to support a lot of people in our community, Essex County; you heard the numbers. They're going to have extra funds and go to the grocery store now and get the items they might otherwise get. That will allow them to pick out and select food items they should be able to afford," she says.
Muir says this will help people go to the grocery store and get items they might not usually be able to get.
"We have clients that need diverse foods, and we don't always have them, and now they will have extra money to go and do that. We're still needed, obviously; food banks are a necessity, but this is certainly going to help many, many families," she says.
The federal government announced February 12 that the new Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit will help more than 12 million low- and modest-income Canadians to afford day-to-day essentials, including around 5 million in Ontario, starting in the spring of 2026.
The measures are expected to provide up to an additional $402 to a single individual without children, $527 to a couple, and $805 to a couple with two children. At these levels, Canada's new government will be offsetting grocery cost increases beyond overall inflation since the pandemic.