Nunavut and Northern Labrador | Exorbitant prices for food despite federal subsidies

(Saint John) Residents of Nunavut and northern Labrador wrote to elected officials in Ottawa this year to denounce the fact that grocers were charging exorbitant prices despite a federal subsidy to curb inflation.

Emails about the Nutrition North Canada subsidy program ranged from desperate pleas to reduce food costs to exasperated demands that retailers who receive subsidies be investigated.

In April, Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal acknowledged there was a problem. “I agree that more work is needed to optimize the subsidy for northerners to ensure that 100% of the subsidy is passed directly to consumers,” Mr. Vandal wrote in a note to the Minister of Nunavut Family Services, Margaret Nakashuk, obtained through a Freedom of Information request.

Some of the 17 citizen emails accused retailers of raising food prices in northern communities after funding arrived earlier this year through a program known as “Jordan’s Principle.” which provides federal support to improve children’s access to essential goods and services, including education and food.

“The prices of our food have increased,” read a message in October. It’s quite dismaying. Who benefits from hunger? »

The emails and notes were made public in response to an access request from The Canadian Press for correspondence with the Department of Northern Affairs regarding the Nutrition North Canada program, from the beginning of this year until 1^is october.

The program, administered by the federal government, provides subsidies to grocery stores in remote Indigenous communities to offset the cost of transporting food and make it more affordable for residents.

In one case, a Girl Guide troop from London, Ontario, wrote to ask the government to make the Nutrition North program more transparent. “We are concerned that the money being provided is not helping to sufficiently lower the price of food in grocery stores,” the letter states.

A jar of pickles for $32

The majority of comments came from people lamenting prices in Nunavut and Nain, Labrador’s northernmost community in the Nunatsiavut Inuit region.

The main stores mentioned are those run by Arctic Co-operatives, which primarily serves Nunavut, and the North West Company, which operates 118 Northern stores in remote communities across Canada’s North.

The senders’ names and identifying information have been redacted.

“The airlines and the North West Company are making millions, but people are starving. Please, please review these rates,” one Nunavut resident wrote in February.

“In fact, grocery stores send rotten food to the landfill because it’s too expensive and many people can’t afford it,” read a July email about prices at Arctic stores. Co-op and Northern. Something else needs to be done so that the Nutrition North subsidy works as planned, so as not to make people suffer and to benefit the stores. »

Another calls for an investigation into prices in Nunavut grocery stores. “A can of corned beef hash was $11 and now $14.09 after Jordan’s Principle was introduced two months ago,” according to a July email. “Even a jar of sweet mixed pickles was over $32. »

As reported by Nunatsiaq News Last week, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI), which represents Nunavut Inuit, confirmed it plans to investigate whether retailers raised food prices after communities began receiving funding under Jordan’s Principle earlier this year.

“NTI has heard concerns […] during our regular board meetings as well as during the Nunavut roundtable on poverty reduction last October,” spokesperson Ivaluarjuk Merritt said in an email to The Canadian Press on Monday.

10 pounds of potatoes for $31

Arctic Co-operatives is owned by the North’s 32 independent community co-op stores, noted Duane Wilson, the co-op’s vice president of stakeholder relations. Since the company’s shareholders are its customers, there is “absolutely no incentive” to unfairly raise prices, he said in an interview Tuesday.

Darryl Martin, spokesperson for the North West Company, assured that the company was working with northern communities to distribute, through gift cards, the funding provided by Ottawa under Jordan’s Principle, also known under the name “Initiative: Inuit Children First”. He said the company shared the aim of “bringing more affordable food prices” to northerners.

In northern Labrador, a resident emailed Nutrition North advisory board members in February to “check in on Rigolet,” a town where the North West Company operates the only grocery store. Several people in Nain sent emails to the ministry during the summer, when prices typically drop because retailers can ship food by ferry rather than paying for costly air freight.

“Why are grocery prices still outrageously high at Northern in Nain even though we are in the middle of shipping season? ”, asked one of them. A 10-pound bag of potatoes at Northern sold for more than $31, the author said. A box of fish sticks was $21.

The federal government announced last month that it would launch an external, independent review of the Nutrition North Canada subsidy program, with a final report expected in 2026.

Nunavut NDP MP Lori Idlout said something needs to be done in the meantime to bring down “unbearable” food prices.

“I think the Liberals don’t care about helping to reduce poverty in Indigenous communities and in northern communities,” said Ms.^me Idlout during a recent interview. We need to find a way to ensure that the Nutrition North program holds companies like the North West Company to account. »

The North West Company reported 219.8 million in gross profit for the second quarter of this year, an increase of 7.8% compared to the same period in 2023.

Last year, Metropolitan Toronto University released a study showing that retailers passed on just 67 cents of every dollar received from the Nutrition North Canada subsidy program to consumers.