Philip Jong

In June 2022, Canada experienced the highest inflation rate recorded in almost four decades. The pervasive inflation has resulted in higher prices of almost all consumer goods and services including food, gas, and rental. It mirrored the inflation surge also observed in many other countries around the world since last year. Economists theorized that the current inflation was caused by a combination of global supply shortages secondary to manufacturing slowdowns during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, volatility in the international energy (particularly oil) market, geopolitical instability from war in Eastern Europe, and even a paradoxical consumer demand increase as the world emerges from a protracted period of economic downturn and high unemployment due to the pandemic. So far, counter-inflationary monetary policies taken by the Government of Canada have not been sufficient to ease the varying economic pressures that are driving up the inflation rate. Not surprisingly, low-income, underprivileged, and marginalized populations have been impacted the greatest by the current inflation. As a Canadian, I am shocked by the rise in the cost of living over the past months which I have not witnessed before in my adult life. Aggressive economic measures are needed immediately to quell the perfect storm that is now fueling the inflation crisis in Canada.