Agriculture Committee on Feb. 7th, 2019

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Luc Berthold]

Good morning, everyone.

Welcome to the 128th meeting of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food. As you can see, our chair, Mr. Finnigan, is absent today. I therefore have the honour of chairing this meeting as part of our study on supporting indigenous Canadians in the agriculture and agri-food industry. During the one and a half hours of this meeting, we will hear from a number of witnesses, whom I will introduce briefly.

From Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, we have Natan Obed, who is President and Canada’s National Inuit leader, and Oana Spinu, who is a Senior Energy Policy Advisor. We will later welcome Chief Patrick Michell, from the Kanaka Bar Indian Band, who will testify by videoconference from Kamloops. We will also welcome Chief Reginald Bellerose of the Muskowekwan First Nation, who will testify by videoconference from Regina. From the Natoaganeg Community Food Centre, we will have Chad Duplessie, Manager, and Erica Ward, Program Coordinator, and they will both appear by videoconference from Fredericton.

Thank you all for taking part in this meeting. If I may, I will first invite the representatives from Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami to make their presentation.

Mr. Obed and Ms. Spinu, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Natan Obed, President, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami]

Thank you.

Ulaakut. Good morning, everyone. It's good to be here for this very important topic that links into our food security and our participation in Canada's economy.

I want to start by talking a little bit about who we are as Inuit. I'm the President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. ITK represents the approximately 65,000 Inuit who live in Canada. We live in what is about 35% of Canada's land mass. We call this area Inuit Nunangat. We have four regions, all of which have settled modern treaties or land claim agreements with the Crown.

We have severe food insecurity. There is 70% food insecurity in parts of Inuit Nunangat. I believe that the lowest food insecurity rates in any one of our regions is about 54%. We have struggles in ensuring that we have enough to eat.

We also have a huge dependence upon our traditional foods. A lot of our traditional foods are harvested, especially in the marine environment. We also live in a climate that is very different from most southern Canadian climates. We don't have agriculture in the way that you might think of the Prairies or other parts in this country, where you can grow crops, harvest them and sell them to market. We are influenced very specifically by Canada's agri-food policies. This is why we wanted to speak with you here this morning.

The subsidies that are provided by the Canadian government and by provinces to the agri-food industry impact the types of foods that end up on our shelves in Inuit Nunangat, and influence the purchase price or the buying point we have. This, with the lack of subsidies for any alternatives, drives up costs for the types of food choices that we traditionally have had, and that we also want to develop.

We are able to produce food. We see that most specifically with the participation within fishing activities. Almost all of those fishing activities, especially for turbot and shrimp, end up in international markets, largely because we don't have the infrastructure within Inuit Nunangat to offload and process. We don't have the distribution systems to ensure that the food harvested in our homeland can then be distributed and purchased in our homeland by Inuit.

We also have traditional hunting systems.

We hope to reclaim some of our food sovereignty. That will require more subsidies and more interest in trying to figure out how Inuit can create the best possible conditions for a diet and for participation within the Canadian economy in the way that we would like to see, rather than the way that the Canadian government or southern interests would like to see.

For example, 82% of Inuit in Inuit Nunangat fish, hunt or gather wild plants. They do so for personal use or to share with their community. That is just a normal way in which we work with the world. In the past there have been considerations and attempts by governments to introduce things like greenhouses in Inuit Nunangat, or to try to spur our economy, but always with a north-south approach.

We bring that consideration here today, to say that if there aren't going to be considerations for Inuit within the billions of dollars of subsidies that exist from Agri-Food Canada, there should be a consideration for our homeland—35% of Canada—in the policies and the processes that enable us to participate in and to be supported by Canada when it comes to our economic development, how we eat and how we feed our communities.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak before you this morning. I look forward to further questions.

Nakurmiik.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Luc Berthold]

Mr. Obed, thank you very much for that presentation. I am sure we will have many questions for you in the next few minutes.

We will now move to the Natoaganeg Community Food Centre, joining us by videoconference.

Mr. Duplessie and Ms. Ward, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Chad Duplessie, Manager, Natoaganeg Community Food Centre]

Thanks very much. As introduced, my name is Chad Duplessie. I'm the Manager of the Natoaganeg Community Food Centre. It's important for me to tell you that I'm of settler descent but have a long family history of working in indigenous communities, specifically Eel Ground First Nation.

We want to tell you a little bit about our community food centre, the role of the food in that program, the role of our community gardens in creating access points for the community for both locally sourced vegetables but also traditional proteins.

I want to let my colleague Erica introduce herself as well.

[Erica Ward, Program Coordinator, Natoaganeg Community Food Centre]

Good afternoon. First off, thank you for having us. My name is Erica Ward. I'm a member of Eel Ground First Nation. I'm Mi'kmaq, and I'm the Program Coordinator for the Natoaganeg Community Food Centre.

Eel Ground First Nation is a Mi'kmaq community in New Brunswick that neighbours the city of Miramichi, a suburban community with approximately 1,000 band members, of which an estimated 600 live on reserve. There are an estimated 230 homes in Eel Ground of which around 90 struggle to secure healthy food on an ongoing basis.

The Mi'kmaq people have lived on the banks of the Miramichi River for over 3,000 years and throughout history have utilized the abundance of natural land-based food sources such as fish, game and berries. Some of the earliest historical accounts of the Mi'kmaq drew attention to their living in unison with the land. They didn't till the ground but would hunt, fish and gather as the seasons allowed.

[Chad Duplessie]

The community of Eel Ground has been working to tackle the food security issue for about 12 years. It started out as a school food program, providing a healthy breakfast and a healthy lunch to the students on a daily basis. With that program, we've seen impacts on the kids' BMI, the students' school connectivity, their mental health, their healthy food literacy—their understanding of what fruits and vegetables are. In this day and age, some kids can't even name what a turnip is. We've been able to really have a lot of success there.

About four years ago, the community tried to take some of those lessons and put them to the community at large. That's when we developed the community food centre. What we started with was the food bank. We took the undignified food bank and we evolved it into a space where we have a multitude of programs, with three community gardens in the community. We do drop-in meals twice a week. One of those focuses on traditional protein, like moose. We've grown very quickly to a place that's very safe for people to drop in to and engage with their community, but also engage with healthy food and create access points to getting that healthy food.

[Erica Ward]

I'm just going to take you through some of our success stories regarding our programming.

This past summer we did a program that we named “Lettuce Turnip the Beets”, a pun on words. We brought community members out to our community gardens along with some local musicians from the community, and we had live music. There were children who would come and harvest whatever vegetables were ready or maybe weed the garden. Elders came out and showed their support in the garden. This was a huge success. We saw approximately 30 to 40 members of the community come out each week for approximately seven weeks and really engage and take part in the community.

We also do our drop-in meals, as Chad has said. We do them twice a week, and this is where we bring in a chef, and volunteers from the community will come and learn food skills as well as create more sense of community and serve these meals to community members. Last night we served a meal, and there were approximately 40 individuals who came and shared with us.

We're reintroducing traditional protein into the community. There was a little bit of hesitation with community members wanting game or cooking it. We're unsure of why this is. The University of Ottawa did a food security study that said that community members were only eating 1.5 tablespoons of traditional food a day, meaning traditionally harvested food. Many community members aren't keen to use moose and fish, but we use it consistently in our programming to really bring back those traditional values, and it's working. More community members are coming to our centre and asking for traditional game and traditional fish and different ways of cooking these meals.

Thank you.

[Chad Duplessie]

I just wanted to highlight quickly that we are a community food centre. We work with two national non-profits. Canadian Feed the Children is an organization that does a lot of international work but also domestic work with indigenous communities. They, primarily, are the funder and supporter of our school food program, again, a universal, free school food program for every student in the school. We also work with Community Food Centres Canada.

We're very proud to be the only partnered community food centre in New Brunswick and exceptionally proud to be the only indigenous community food centre in Canada. Community Food Centres Canada runs a national network of around 11 community food centres, many of which are in big urban areas. We've taken their model and really shrunk it down to service a community of 600.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Luc Berthold]

Thank you very much, Mr. Duplessie. I have to interrupt you, since the time for your presentation has already run out. However, I am sure that you will have the opportunity to come back to the topic during questions.

We will begin the questions and comments.

Mr. Dreeshen, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

There are certainly some very interesting discussions here this morning. I am a farmer, so I know how important it is for education with regard to the foods that we supply to all Canadians. Certainly, having spent some time, from a political perspective, dealing with northern affairs and aboriginal affairs and northern development, I've seen a lot of the things that have happened throughout the country. I'm very impressed with the way in which the education component has been presented with the Mi'kmaq in the Miramichi.

I was also a teacher for 34 years, so I see the disconnect that there is between agriculture and the general community. It's not just agriculture. It has to do with the diets people have. One of the key things that you could be looking at right now is the food shows on television, the cooking shows and everything.

That's what is happening in your communities, and I think that's an important aspect of it. I think a lot of us feel that it's getting away from us, that young people and even those who haven't been associated with it have kind of lost the knowledge about the foods that are there, and I think that's a critical component.

If you happen to be in an area where you haven't lost it because your traditions haven't changed, I think that's important, but it's also important to continue and to make people aware of it.

I know that, Mr. Obed, you were talking about food insecurity and the percentages that are there. Could you define what you mean by food insecurity so that we have that on the record? Then our discussions will be more pointed.

[Natan Obed]

Where food insecurity rates are referenced, 70% food insecurity is a number that is specific to Nunavut and Nunavut Inuit. It comes from the Nunavut Inuit health survey that was done in 2007-08. We don't have reliable data that is rolled up in a national level.

We know that food insecurity rates differ between Inuit jurisdictions: Nunatsiavut in northern Labrador, Nunavik in northern Quebec, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories and Inuvialuit settlement region.

The Inuit health survey is the place where we get most of our food insecurity data, and that was compiled through a survey that was based on the USDA survey. It's moderate and severe food insecurity. Seventy per cent is the culmination of moderate and severe food insecurity.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

I think that maybe the important thing for us would be if we could get some definitions from different groups that are using that terminology. If someone could send it to us later, that would be good, because it would help in the study for us to know where we're at.

Do you have more information that you would like to share?

[Natan Obed]

Sure.

The severe food insecurity for Inuit means that we're lacking secure access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food on a regular basis. Moderate food insecurity means that over the course of a month a person might make food choices that are not in the best interests of themselves or their family to be able to get the proper nutrients, and perhaps that person even does not eat a meal, in order to help another family member.

Our food insecurity rates are unfortunately the highest in any developed country for an indigenous population that we know of. First nations and Métis food insecurity rates are also higher. It isn't a race to the bottom here. It's just what our rates are. It should be of great concern to the Canadian government.

There are programs in place, but like I said at the outset, you have almost $7 billion in subsidies that go into agricultural practices in this country, and then you have approximately $80 million that goes into the nutrition north program, of which 80% is utilized by Inuit communities. But this is not necessarily the way in which we would like to eat or the way in which we would like to participate in economic development in relation to food.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Getting to that participation aspect, you talked about specific subsidies and so on to help maintain the northern diet and the other types of things, and to have the opportunity to expand into the economic world, where you can be selling the product and so on. Of course, there are infrastructure issues and so on that are associated with that.

In the short time I have left, I think it's good to talk about what you see is needed and what you see that is practical, because we can put a bunch of money into something like that, but it has to be something that you would see could work on the ground. Could you perhaps flesh that out a bit for us?

[Natan Obed]

Just as an example, about 75 million kilograms of fish and seafood are harvested in Inuit Nunangat, directly adjacent to Inuit Nunangat waters. Virtually none of that is processed within Inuit Nunangat or distributed within our 51 communities. The infrastructure deficit is the first reason why, along with the lack of subsidies for a natural distribution chain within our communities. Unfortunately, we don't have the ability to overcome this without the infrastructure and the subsidies, because we don't have a road system. We rely on air transport and then, in the summer—

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

What would be practical...?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Luc Berthold]

Mr. Dreeshen, I'm sorry, but your time is up.

Mr. Drouin, you now have the floor for six minutes.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I just want to let you finish your comment. You said that you mostly rely on air transportation, and in the summertime....

[Natan Obed]

It's through resupply through marine transport.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Did you appear before our committee before?

[Natan Obed]

Yes.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

You did, yes, and you're the one who enlightened me about traditional foods and their importance, about not just shipping what other populations would eat, but the importance of ensuring your communities have access to those traditional foods.

I'm just curious. Have you seen any programs that have worked within certain Inuit communities up north that have really developed? I know that you've talked about the 70% food insecurity, but is that prevalent in all of the Inuit communities, or is it more severe in some communities versus others?

[Natan Obed]

The general food insecurity rate is unacceptable across Inuit Nunangat and the rates are between 50% to 70%, I believe, depending on the region and community.

There are pilot projects. Amazing things are happening at the community level to promote food security, to carry on traditions among generations about how to harvest and share food. There also have been pilots around selling country food because that is our right as Inuit to sell country food.

The biggest challenges have been the sustainability of any of those short-term measures. Many of them have been provincial or territorial or even Inuit government-led pilots or small subsidies. I see a bigger opportunity at the national level because of the level of subsidy for agri-food generally, but there's a lack of consideration to date of indigenous or even Inuit-specific solutions to some of our food insecurity rates that are in line with our culture.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Can you name me one example of a successful pilot, for example, if the Government of Canada were to say agricultural policies will be opening up to help you further expand those pilots?

[Natan Obed]

One that comes to mind is “Going Off, Growing Strong”, which is a project out of Nunatsiavut that links experienced hunters with the young population. They go off, they harvest foods, they fill community freezers and then those community freezers are accessed by elders and other parts of the community. It combines the ability for young people to learn new skills, but also for them to be a part of their society and their community in a way that overcomes the effects of things like residential schools and intergenerational trauma. It also has the very practical use of serving those in need with traditional foods in a way that is consistent with the sharing practices of the Inuit.