Evidence of meeting #34 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 40th Parliament, 3rd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was retailers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director General, Devolution and Territorial Relations Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
The plan is to release the rates by September 1. We issued fact sheets to all the retailers in the first week of June on how the program was going to work, and we've been engaging them all summer.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
I think they were confused, though, about rates and how specifically the program would work. There's some general information about how the program is going to work, but the specifics aren't there.
Director General, Devolution and Territorial Relations Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
The rates will be comparable to the existing ones. I can't really tell one company the rate and not the other, because of competitive advantage. But the three or four larger companies have seen how we're doing this and they're comfortable at this point where we're at.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
It's not exactly what we heard at the table here from the large companies. There was some concern about not understanding how it was going to work.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
We couldn't really establish rates until such time as we had the final data from Canada Post from last year. We now have that and we've been doing the analysis, and that's why we'll be able to issue that information on December 1.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
Very well.
We're going to suspend for about three minutes just to allow the minister to get out.
I would ask the officials to hang in there, though, until we finish the meeting.
We'll suspend for a few minutes.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
We'll continue.
We're going to go to Ms. Glover....
Is Ms. Copland still here?
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
She's going to be back.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
She's going to be back momentarily? That's fine.
Ms. Glover is next on the list.
We'll come to you after that, and then Mr. Bagnell would like to go as well.
Mr. Lemay.
Bloc
Marc Lemay Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
A point of order.
Are we planning on adding an extra hour? I know that Mr. Clarke wanted us to hear from another witness, maybe more.
Can you hear the interpretation, Rob?
Conservative
Bloc
Marc Lemay Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
I thought you were just innocently looking at Mrs. Glover.
All right, let's be serious. I wanted to know if we could add an extra hour. Perhaps someone from Valpiro and someone form Mr. Clarke's riding would appear before the committee. Will we take care of this right away?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
We can't entertain that question right now, on a point of order.
I have Ms. Glover as the last person on the list, and then we'll see. I have Mr. Bagnell.
If you're recognized, and we have time, we'll consider that question.
Let's go to Ms. Glover.
November 15th, 2010 / 4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Shelly Glover Conservative Saint Boniface, MB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses, again, for being here.
The minister has left, but she brought pictures that were circulated. For the viewing public, I think it's important that we indicate exactly what's in these pictures, and they don't have the benefit of seeing what it is that we're seeing.
Could one of you take a moment and explain to us what's in the pictures, and perhaps the prices that are listed? I think what the minister was trying to say is that the pictures show very clearly that the food mail program does not allow subsidy to always get to the consumer. I think the pictures demonstrate that.
If someone could just take the time to do that for our viewing audience, that would be great.
Director General, Department of Health
I think I can read it.
Well, there's the picture of 750 grams of Cracker Barrel mild cheese for $18.39. There' s a bag of 10 kilograms of flour for $33.59.
There's a red pepper for $4.83; I'm not sure how many there are in the package—maybe one red pepper.
There is 1.89 litres of Five Alive citrus for $20.49; 5 kilograms of all-purpose flour for $17.99; 1.8 kilograms of oranges for $14.33; salt-free Becel—it looks like a large tub—for $11.49; and 100% pure orange juice, 1.89 litres, for $11.49.
Conservative
Shelly Glover Conservative Saint Boniface, MB
Thank you. I appreciate that. This way everyone understands what the minister was distributing.
I'd like to take a moment to fix some of the misinformation that's been put out in previous committees.
I'll ask whomever would like to respond whether we can fix, first of all, the indication by a previous witness that communities were cut off by not being included in the community eligibility list. Would you like to explain how we have determined which communities would be eligible, and would you please explain that no one was cut off? That would be much appreciated.
Director General, Devolution and Territorial Relations Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Similar to my last answer, as we said, we took communities using the food mail programs and looked at their volumes with Canada Post, and those that had 15,000 kilograms or more shipped annually are in the program. For those that had less, we will pay companies a nominal 5¢ a kilogram to give us data on the trends into the future so we can relook at eligibility down the road.
The places haven't really lost anything: they weren't really cut off, because they weren't in the program in the first place; that's how we look at it. Many of these companies had other ways, more cost-efficient ways, than Canada Post to get goods to those markets.
Conservative
Shelly Glover Conservative Saint Boniface, MB
So my understanding, just to make it simple, is that if they weren't using it, they weren't on the eligibility list.
Director General, Devolution and Territorial Relations Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
That's correct.
Conservative
Shelly Glover Conservative Saint Boniface, MB
If they were using it, we would have seen their names on the eligibility list. So no one has been cut off--not a single community. Okay. Very good.
Another statement was made about tea versus coffee. Someone said a retailer was claiming that because of the new program, tea was going to cost one price and coffee was going to be subject to a much higher price. I was trying to explain that tea and coffee were equal under the program. Am I correct about that?
Director General, Devolution and Territorial Relations Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
They're both considered non-perishables, so in communities that have sealifts, those two products were delisted on October 3. The winter roads communities still have time to stock up until April 1. In the future they will not be subsidized products because they are non-perishable items that are much cheaper to ship by other means.
Conservative
Shelly Glover Conservative Saint Boniface, MB
So how do we hold those retailers accountable for saying that our Nutrition North Canada program is responsible for these higher prices, and feeding this misinformation to the consumers? How do we hold them to account?
Conservative
