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Canada’s Food Price Guide, released today by Dalhousie University and the University of Guelph, says grocery bills will likely rise between five and seven per cent — or an extra $966 for a typical family grocery bill.

“It’s the highest increase that we’re predicting in 12 years, both in terms of dollars and percentage,” chief researcher Sylvain Charlebois said. “It’s not going to be easy.”

Different types of food are expected to go up in price at different rates, with dairy and baked goods expected to be comparatively much more pricey, while past culprits like meat and seafood will look comparatively flat. The report says dairy is set to get more expensive because of higher input costs for things like feed, energy and fertilizer, along with higher transportation and labour costs. The Canadian Dairy Commission warned as much in a report last month, asking the government to allow an 8.4 per cent increase in milk prices.

Baked goods, meanwhile, are in for sharp price increases largely because the hot summer on the Prairies was devastating to wheat and other crops, the report says.

The other reasons for the uptick are varied, but an increasingly large factor is the growing cost of food waste. More than half of all the food produced in Canada gets thrown out, research suggests, and that inefficiency is finally starting to show up at the cash register at a time when Canadians are counting their pennies more than ever.

Charlebois says there’s a growing trend from some stores and consumers to try to bring down that waste by finding ways to sell it to those who want it.

“Grocers are empowering consumers to rescue food more [by] showcasing products that are about to expire at a discount 25 to 50 per cent off,” he said. “People are starting to realize that the aesthetics that we see in the grocery store is costing us money.” Read more on this story here.

It’s lonely at the top

In brief

Doctors and advocates are calling for changes to breast cancer screening guidelines. They say they’re concerned about recently published findings that call into question a decades-old study that has informed Canada’s breast cancer screening guidelines and which led to a recommendation against yearly mammograms for women in their 40s. The new paper adds to the long-standing and polarizing debate over whether women in their 40s should get regular mammograms and has prompted some organizations and family doctors to call on the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care to review the new evidence and change its guidelines. Just three provinces allow women age 40 to 49 to be screened without a referral — British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Read more about the debate here. 

Ten years after a spy scandal rocked the Canadian military, the navy still has trouble keeping track of electronic storage devices with secret and classified data on them. Two Canadian warships were recently the subjects of military police and internal investigations after devices went missing, CBC News has learned. In August 2020, an inventory of the secure data account aboard HMCS Fredericton “discovered numerous classified and unclassified [electronic warfare] items” were missing. A subsequent search focused on two missing DVDs containing highly “sensitive” information. And in mid-October, a classified message-handling hard drive was reported missing after a routine security audit of HMCS Montreal. The country’s top military commander, Gen. Wayne Eyre, said he was concerned by the incidents and said the military must become “much more security conscious.” Read more about the incidents here.

The father of a Canadian man imprisoned in Syria is making a last-ditch push for the federal government to repatriate his son. “I think the Canadian government has a duty to take care of Canadians if they get into trouble abroad,” said John Letts, the father of Jack Letts. His son, infamously dubbed Jihadi Jack by British media, is believed to be in a detention camp in northeast Syria, where he’s been held since May 2017. Jack — a former British-Canadian dual citizen — had his British citizenship revoked two years ago, leaving the Canadian government as his only viable means of escaping the camp. His father is urging Canada to repatriate not only his son but other Canadians held in Syrian detention camps. “If they’re guilty … put them on trial, lock them up, I don’t have a problem,” John said. “But if they’re innocent, let them go.” According to a 2020 report by Human Rights Watch, there were at least 47 Canadians being held in detention camps over alleged links to ISIS. In a statement to CBC News, Global Affairs Canada said it is following the situation at the camps “very closely” but did not provide any details. Read more about John Letts’s request here.

New Zealand plans to make it illegal for kids to buy cigarettes — for life. Under planned legislation, anyone 14 years old or younger in 2027 will never be able to legally buy tobacco products. That means a person aged 60 in 2073 will be banned from buying cigarettes, while a person aged 61 would be allowed to do so. Currently, 11.6 per cent of all New Zealanders aged over 15 smoke, a proportion that rises to 29 per cent among Indigenous Maori adults. The government will consult with a Maori health task force in the coming months before introducing legislation into Parliament in June next year, with the aim of making it law by the end of 2022. Read more about the proposed law here.

Now for some good news to start your Thursday: Olympic decathlon champion Damian Warner was voted Canada’s best athlete of 2021 on Wednesday. Warner, 32, collects the Lou Marsh Trophy after his record-setting performance at the Tokyo Games, where he led after all 10 events to become just the fourth person ever to break the vaunted 9,000-point mark. He is the first Canadian to win the Olympic decathlon. The London, Ont., native was later named Canada’s flag-bearer for the closing ceremony. Warner called it an incredible honour. “I think when I look back at it when I’m older, it will mean that much more knowing that we persevered through all those hard circumstances, and it’s a testament to the team around me.” Read more about Warner’s win here.

Opinion: COVID has created an early education pandemic that school boards are ignoring

Our son lost his formative education and developed a learning gap as a result of pandemic school closures. He’s now expected to function at a Grade 1 level with no adjustment in the curriculum, writes Andrew Dias. Read his opinion piece here.

Front Burner: Did NATO make a mistake in Ukraine?

Russia has sent almost 100,000 troops near the Ukraine border in recent weeks. Observers believe the state is trying to extract certain concessions from Europe, particularly assurances from NATO that Ukraine will never be able to join the security group.  

Janice Gross Stein was a founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs in Toronto. She argues that NATO’s “strategic ambiguity” toward Ukraine gave the country false hope we had its back — so now, we’re partly seeing the fallout of promises we couldn’t keep.

Today in history: Dec. 9

1955: A mob of almost 3,000 mostly young people demonstrates against increased public transit fares in Montreal. Damage, estimated at $100,000, is done to 172 trams and 64 buses, and more than 110 people are arrested.

1956: A Trans-Canada Airlines plane crashes on Mount Slesse, near Chilliwack, B.C. The 62 victims include five CFL players returning from the league’s All-Star Game in Vancouver.

1990: Pope John Paul canonizes Marguerite d’Youville, who founded the Grey Nuns, as Canada’s first saint.

2020: Health Canada approves national use of Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine. The announcement makes Canada the third country in the world to approve the vaccine.