Thanksgiving Dinner Could Be More Expensive In Canada This Year Thanks To Rising Food Prices

Be prepared to pay a bit more for potatoes, butter and bacon!

Staff Writer

It could be a pricy Thanksgiving dinner this year because a few key ingredients are way more expensive than they were in 2020.

According to data from Statistics Canada, some grocery store staples cost more on average than they did last year, and it could drive up your grocery bill for the big weekend.

If you're a fan of mashed or roasted potatoes, you might be dismayed to learn that a 4.54-kilogram bag of spuds has gone from costing $9.82 on average in October 2020 to $10.67 in August 2021.

Some baking ingredients are more expensive now, too, including sugar, flour, butter and eggs, and the cost of mushrooms, carrots and onions have all increased since last Thanksgiving.

And while Statistics Canada doesn't specifically list the cost of turkey, the price of meat, in particular, has skyrocketed in Canada. CTV reports that bacon costs more now than it ever has before, and StatCan data shows that a kilogram of chicken now costs $8.13 — up from $7.94 for Thanksgiving 2010.

According to a recent survey by Dalhousie University's Agri-Food Analytics Lab and Caddle, many Canadians are changing up the way they shop because of perceived higher prices. As a result, more people are using flyers and coupons and 49% of respondents say they're buying less meat as a result.

  • Cormac O'Brien was an Associate Editor at Narcity Canada, covering all things exciting and trending about Canada. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Journalism from the University of Victoria, where he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the campus newspaper and was awarded the BCYNA Community News Scholarship for his writing. He was also the producer and co-host of Now On Narcity, Narcity's flagship podcast.

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