Thank you and good afternoon.
I'm just distributing copies of photos I've taken. For the last almost 10 years throughout the north I've been taking photographs of food on the shelves. These prices are in my home store in Gjoa Haven. This is what we're up against and why we're here today.
It's my pleasure to be here again to discuss a program that is so important to those of us who live in Canada's northern communities. I have put a lot of time and energy into ensuring that this program works efficiently toward a system that's more consumer price-friendly and ensures a greater variety of nutritious food choices.
In 1960, 50 years ago, the Government of Canada recognized that northerners needed a regular supply of healthy foods at lower prices if they were going to include food such as fruit and vegetables as part of a balanced diet. For decades the federal government has been subsidizing the cost of shipping perishable and non-perishable food and other items to Canada's north. Today, items are provided to 70,000 people in 80 northern communities in Canada's territories and provinces.
We will not change our continued support for access to nutritious food. What is changing is the way we subsidize nutritious food. Items that were previously shipped by air are most times more efficiently shipped by winter roads or by sealift during the summer. This is a very significant change that makes a huge difference in the value being given to northern consumers through taxpayers' dollars. The food mail program needed to be changed because costs were increasing due to almost no limit on non-perishable items being shipped by air.
The intent of the program has always been to provide affordable and nutritious food to northerners throughout the year. Besides being the most expensive mode of transportation, air transport is often not the right way to ship foods to the northern communities.
Many non-perishable items could be shipped by boat at one-tenth of the cost. I'm looking forward to seeing the funds for this program focused on shipping nutritious food instead of non-perishable items. Marine transport is a significantly less expensive method of shipping. In Nunavut, for example, the per-pound rate for shipping by sealift is 23ยข, as opposed to a food-mail subsidized rate of $2.50 per pound by air. It does take more planning, but that is part of the reality of living in Canada's north.
Our government took on the difficult task of creating a new system that is focused on getting fresher food to the north in a more rapid and efficient way. It also has to be accountable and transparent in order for the true cost to be better reflected. As a result, the efficiencies of the new model will help make sure that northerners get the maximum benefit from the government subsidy for healthy foods. It will give northern retailers more control over their supply chain. They will cut out the middle man and make the supply chain more efficient. It will create incentives for greater quality control and less spoilage. It will create market conditions in which retailers are better positioned to offer more affordable prices. Fresh food will get to the shelves sooner, making it more attractive to consumers, and meaning there will be less waste of nutritious food.
We are in a period of transition. The Nutrition North Canada program takes full effect in April 2011, but a few weeks ago the subsidy for non-perishable items was eliminated. Back in the spring, retailers were advised that change was on the way so they could increase their orders for non-perishable items via sealift during the summer months. We announced these changes four months before this last sealift set sail so there would be an adequate supply. We hoped that with the advance notice there were be no need and no incentive to ship these often heavier items, such as canned goods, by aircraft.
As you know, I am responsible for the health portfolio, but I am also the regional minister responsible for the three territories. My own territory of Nunavut has the largest number of eligible communities under the food mail program, so the change to Nutrition North Canada is a significant one for the people I represent. The people of the north need milk, fresh fruit, and vegetables.
With the food mail program, where there were fixed dates for shipping food through Canada Post, there were often incidents of food spoiling before it reached its destination. There were incidents of food being sent on days other than prime days of the week for consumers--