Food security and food access
New Brunswick grows ten times the potatoes and seafood we eat. We harvest about a quarter of Canada’s wild blueberries. We lead Atlantic Canada in maple syrup. Small local operations are still growing fruits, vegetables and raising animals. Yet we buy most of the produce in supermarkets. We should be connecting local producers with residential neighbourhoods. We had a great market once, let’s fill it with shoppers again!
Where I stand
Food is not just calories. It is health, dignity, and the difference between a good day and a hard one. Saint John has the bones of a healthy local food economy: the City Market is the oldest continuously operating market in Canada, where nearby farms have been selling local produce to local shoppers. And now it’s a place for tourists to shop for T-shirts woven in China.
What is missing is the connection. Most produce on shelves has travelled the continent before getting here. Wholesalers take their margin. By the time someone on a fixed income decides whether they can afford a head of lettuce, three or four other people have already taken their cut. It is structural inefficiency dressed up as a supply chain.
Two things would change this in ways the city can actually push for. First, work with neighbouring farms to bring produce into the market mix at affordable prices: bulk harvest sales (one farmer, one seasonal crop, one day, one location, sold directly to customers), the model that works across Europe. Direct sales fix the system: farmers do not get squeezed by wholesalers, transport costs are minimized, no air-conditioned space to maintain for a handful of customers strolling through it, no corporate profits for the retailers. Shoppers pay only for food and not for markup. Whatever does not sell at the end of the day can go to Romero House and other organizations.
Second, the zoning is mostly ready. ZoneSJ already permits four-to-six units per lot in residential zones, and the Local Commercial (CL) zone is designed for exactly the corner store I have in mind: “limited daily commercial convenience needs for surrounding residential neighbourhoods… buildings similar in scale to the surrounding neighbourhood.” Grocery, bakery, restaurant, and personal services are all permitted in CL, with dwellings above. The kind of corner store you find in European capitals, one storefront wide, fresh bread, vegetables on the sidewalk, a fridge in the back, is exactly what CL is for. The work that remains is operational and where the zone gets applied: extend CL to more neighbourhoods, and make sure permits, fees, and parking minimums do not punish a one-staff storefront.
The Food Purchasing Club showed that there’s demand for solutions that trade wider selection for lower prices.
What I will push for on council
- Work with neighbouring farms to bring affordable bulk harvest produce into the City Market mix.
- A corner-store produce pilot in partnership with a local farm and the Food Purchasing Club, in a few neighbourhood stores. If it moves, the store keeps stocking. If not, the city has learned without betting the budget.
- Extend the Local Commercial (CL) zone to more neighbourhoods, and remove operational barriers (permit fees, parking minimums, change-of-use friction) that punish small operators.
- Distribution arrangements so unsold market produce reaches Romero House and similar organizations rather than the dumpster.
- Support and back the food-security non-profits already doing the work; do not duplicate them.
Where I am still listening
The Uptown Fridge has come up on the topic list but is not yet reflected in this draft. I want to talk to the people running it before I commit to a public position on city support, location, or policy.