Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to thank the committee for the invitation to Chiefs of Ontario to speak about this important issue and also to pass on regrets for Ontario Regional Chief Angus Toulouse, who couldn't be here today.
I'd also like to acknowledge the traditional territory of the Algonquin people here in Ottawa.
Many nations have approached food security from the perspective of food as a human right, so we fully appreciate Canada's efforts to improve access to healthy foods through the new Nutrition North Canada program.
Poverty and food insecurity and diets high in processed foods and lacking in traditional foods are well-known determinants of health and are implicated in the major conditions that negatively impact the health status of many of our people. These include, as Mr. Jock has mentioned, type 2 diabetes, childhood obesity, heart disease, cancer, as well as poor oral health, which impacts both physical and mental well-being.
I'd like to address some of the positive aspects as well as some of our concerns for first nations in Ontario as this new program is implemented. Since we had only less than two weeks to prepare for this presentation, we haven't had time to gather adequate feedback and input on the process from our communities. Therefore the points that I bring out here today are by no means representative or all-inclusive.
The food mail program review report by Graeme Dargo made several recommendations based on discussions primarily with Inuit communities, organizations, and other stakeholders. However, he did not appear to conduct discussions with any of the 32 fly-in or remote first nation communities or organizations in northern Ontario, only eight of which are eligible for Nutrition North. So we have no information on why some of these communities didn't use food mail, which eliminates their eligibility for the new program. The Dargo report also mentioned possible transfer of this program to Health Canada. Such a transfer will need to be transparent and involve discussions with first nations if it does go forward.
Communities need to be involved in the determination and periodic review of the list of eligible foods to be sure that they are culturally acceptable as well as healthy. We're happy to see recognition of the importance of traditional foods. However, the requirement that they be commercially packaged to be eligible restricts this benefit to a select few northern producers of Inuit country foods. So we support the implementation of provisions for transport and sharing of locally harvested traditional foods within northern Ontario region as well, to help reduce reliance on market foods.
Critical to the success of the program is the need for a mechanism to keep retailers accountable in keeping their prices as low as possible on the subsidized items.
Although the advisory committee will be conducting audits, without regulation they will have no authority to enforce pricing limits at the point of sale. We have concerns about what consequences there will be for a retailer who isn't compliant. If the subsidy is removed from the community, it may leave them with no recourse and result in exorbitant food prices. We need to be assured that this program will not result in financial losses that will in turn result in less healthy foods being ordered by retailers, or those losses being passed on to consumers by increases in the prices of other items.
As far as the eligibility criteria, 24 remote communities in Ontario are only eligible for a nominal subsidy or none at all. Use of the minimum weight order as a requirement for eligibility penalizes smaller communities that could still benefit greatly from the subsidy. We therefore recommend greater transparency in how this eligibility was determined as well as a mechanism to allow currently ineligible communities to apply for the subsidy in the future.
In 2006 food prices in three fly-in communities in northern Ontario--two of which were on food mail--were used to determine the cost to feed a family of four, which was close to $1,400 a month. That is double the average of $700 for municipalities in Ontario.
Since first nations demographics include larger families and a much younger population, the average cost to feed a family including teenagers--and if any of you have teenagers you know--would be even higher. Making these communities ineligible for subsidies under Nutrition North Canada will only result in even higher food prices.
The Health Canada nutrition education component is an important aspect of the new program, as remote communities don't always have access to dieticians or other nutrition professionals to provide this education. However, we'd like to be assured that the resources for this education will not be redirected from other Health Canada program areas, such as CPNP or ADI. Staff in these communities are already stretched to the limit providing education within communities specific to diabetes prevention and maternal health. This is a prime opportunity to expand the community food educator program to increase community capacity by training lay educators.
In closing, we look forward to our first nations being fully involved partners in the development, implementation, and evaluation of this program. We need to ensure a positive impact on the health and well-being of our people and accomplish the mandate of the program to improve access and availability of healthy foods.
Thank you.