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Rising inflation adds extra cost for Alberta families hoping to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner

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A classic roast turkey dinner with all the fixings will cost Calgarians a lot more than they bargained for this year as inflation has drastically increased the price of the traditional holiday meal.

According to Statistics Canada, the total cost of a turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, pumpkin pie and beverages now comes in at an average cost of $203.95 for a family of four.

That’s up 12 per cent from the $181.75 cost from last year according to a survey of several grocery retailers.

Food inflation at one point hit 10.8 per cent in August compared to the previous year, marking the fastest increase in grocery prices since 1981.

The large hit to pocket books is a tough pill to swallow for lower income Calgarians. Michael Jordan says he plans to forgo the traditional Thanksgiving meal altogether.

"You can buy a packet of pulled chicken and, if you close your eyes, it's just as good," laughed Jordan.

"We're on a fixed income and we just can't afford it so we're not getting a turkey this year."

According to Agri-Food Analytics Lab, the cost of a turkey has gone up 15 per cent compared to Thanksgiving last year.

The price in 2021 was about $5.73 per kilogram or $37.25 for a 6.5 kilogram turkey, but now the price of a kilogram of fresh turkey is about $6.59 or $42.84 for the same size bird.

Stuart Smyth, agri-food innovation and sustainability enhancement chair at the University of Saskatchewan, says it's not just turkeys that are gobbling up a greater share of holiday meal spending.

"Potatoes are up 11 per cent, vegetables another nine per cent, and  even the ice cream to put on your pie is going to cost you an extra five or six per cent more."

Smyth says the cost of transportation and the price of gas and diesel fuel are continuing to hurt consumers at grocery stores.

"Gas prices have jumped 30 to 50 cents a litre in the last two or three weeks so that's got an impact," explained Smyth.

"The Canadian dollar also continues to drop so now we've used up a lot of the Canadian produce from over the summer, importing from the southern U.S. again, so that means we're paying more in the exchange rate just to import those goods from the United States."

AVIAN FLU OUTBREAKS TIGHTEN TURKEY SUPPLY IN ALBERTA

Alberta's turkey supply is expected to be far more limited this Thanksgiving than in years past.

With 18 active outbreaks of avian flu currently in place across the province, more than 1.3 million birds have had to be killed due to the virus.

Bob Choquette, operations manager of Urban Butcher in Calgary's Mission neighbourhood, says his team had some issues finding turkeys in time for Thanksgiving this year. 

"We were contacted about six weeks ago from our producer that we've dealt with for the last 18 years and he was totally distraught when he told me that he had to destroy all his turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas, due to the avian mercury.

"I was very lucky I was able to contact another producer and secure birds for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but the only issue with that being is that our original producer was able to supply different weight ranges of birds, but this new producer only has specific weight ranges."

Choquette notes that the supply issues with turkeys this year have unfortunately resulted in price increases of about 25 per cent. 

The retail shop was still able to secure 150 turkeys this year compared to their normal 200 and sold out their entire stock by Friday afternoon. 

"Even with the price increase and supply issues, we still haven't noticed the demand go down," said Choquette. "We're very lucky to have customers that love us and understand.

"But if the 25 pound bird isn't available or in someone's budget, we are noticing some people going with a ham or they'll go with a prime rib roast or something."

Cases of Avian flu have hit Alberta's poultry industry harder than anywhere else in Canada, with cases detected in 44 Alberta flocks.

Nearly 30 commercial operations were also forced to temporarily close to contain the spread.
 

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