Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Feb. 25th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

We have quorum. Accordingly, I call this meeting of the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs to order. I am in Ottawa today, sitting on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin people.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted on October 27, 2020, the committee is continuing its study of food security in northern communities.

To ensure an orderly meeting, remember to speak slowly and listen in the official language of your choice. There is a selector in that globe at the bottom centre of the screen, in which you can select French or English. When speaking, ensure your video is turned on and please speak slowly and clearly. When you are not speaking, your mike should be on mute.

With us today by video conference for the first 45 minutes are the following witnesses. From First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study, Laurie Chan, Lynn Barwin, Malek Batal, Tonio Sadik and Constantine Tikhonov.

Mr. Chan, let me turn it over to you and you can introduce your speakers. Please go ahead for about six minutes, but a bit longer if you need to.

[Dr. Laurie Chan, First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study]

Thank you.

Good evening, committee chair and committee members. Thank you for inviting us to present our study results on food security in northern communities to your committee.

My name is Laurie Chan. I'm a professor and Canada research chair in toxicology and environmental health at the University of Ottawa, and one of the principal investigators of the study.

The other co-PIs who are here this evening are Dr. Malek Batal, a professor and Canada research chair in nutrition and health inequalities at the University of Montreal; Dr. Tonio Sadik, senior director of environment, lands and water at the Assembly of the First Nations; and Dr. Constantine Tikhonov, section head of safe food environments at the first nations and Inuit health branch of Indigenous Services Canada. Ms. Lynn Barwin is the project manager of the study and is based at the University of Ottawa.

On behalf of the team, I'm talking about the results of the first nations food, nutrition and environment study. This is the most comprehensive statistically representative study on nutrition and the environmental health of first nations ever completed in Canada. It is a true partnership between universities, the Assembly of First Nations and the federal government. This 11-year study received over $12 million in funding from Health Canada and Indigenous Services Canada, and successfully collected data from 6,487 participants from 92 first nations in 11 ecozones and eight Assembly of First Nation regions south of the 60th parallel across Canada.

Out of the 92 communities, 37 were within 50 kilometres of main service centres, 39 were over 50 kilometres away and 17 were fly-in communities. A random sampling strategy developed by Statistics Canada was adopted to ensure that the study assessed and represented the diversity of diets of first nations. We used a standard approach, with identical tools and methodology, so that the results are comparable.

The study is based on a participatory approach and was born out of a need expressed by the first nations. Overarching first nations support was received through a resolution passed by the chiefs-in-assembly in 2007 at the Assembly of First Nations annual general assembly, and the AFN participated as one of the principal investigating partners throughout the study. At the regional level, before implementation of the study, first nations regional organizations were consulted, as were representatives from each participating first nation. Regional chiefs approved the study and provided guidance on approaches to addressing specific local environmental issues or concerns and logistics needs in their respective regions.

All first nations were involved in the planning and implementation of the data collection for the five study components. They included household interviews, through which socio-demographic, nutritional, health and food security information was collected. We also collected tap water samples for metals, surface water samples for pharmaceuticals, hair samples for mercury, and traditional food samples for contaminant metals. We believe this important information collected by the study can be used by first nations, by the risk assessors and by policy-makers like you to develop effective initiatives to promote better health and well-being for first nations.

We have included an executive summary of the study in the package we submitted to you.

Next will be Dr. Batal.

[Dr. Malek Batal, First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study]

Thank you, Laurie.

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, good evening.

We have summarized our findings on food security in the document to you entitled, “The Right to Food: A Coast to Coast Look at Food Security Among First Nations Living on Reserve South of the 60th Parallel”.

In brief, interviews to assess food security in our study were done using the household food security survey module, a tool used by Statistics Canada in the general population, making possible comparisons between first nations data in our study and general Canadian numbers.

We also compared the cost of a weekly basket of food in communities and compared it to the cost of food in a major urban centre in each region using a standard tool, which was Health Canada's national nutritious food basket. In all regions food costs were often two to three times higher in communities more than 50 kilometres away from a major urban centre, and were even higher in fly-in communities.

Prevalence of food insecurity was high in all the surveyed regions and averaged 47.1%, nearly four times higher than the Canadian prevalence of 12.2%. There was a south-north gradient of increasing food insecurity, reaching close to 80% in some remote fly-in communities. Our data on food cost and on food insecurity in remote communities show that existing federal programs have failed to reduce food insecurity in the communities where these programs are present.

Since the food system for first nations includes traditional food, our study used additional questions that addressed the barriers and enablers to obtaining traditional food. Almost half of all participating households worried that traditional foods would not last until they could get more. Issues of food insecurity among first nations are compounded by problems of inadequate access to a healthy diet, leading to high rates of nutrition-related chronic disease and chronic disease risk factors.

For example, rates of obesity are twice as high in first nations on reserve compared to the Canadian population—50% versus 25%. Diabetes is three times as high, at 21% versus 7%. Please note that our diabetes figures are based on self-reports and this could be an underestimation of the true prevalence.

On the other hand, traditional food when available can contribute greatly to the quality of the diet, even when present in small quantities. We showed that diet quality was much better on days when traditional food was consumed. Seventy-seven per cent of first nations adults in our representative sample told us they would like to consume more traditional food, but are prevented from doing so because of government regulations, farming, hydro projects, oil and gas, forestry and mining.

Additional barriers they mentioned included time, resources and knowledge, in addition to concerns over climate change and its impact on traditional food availability.

Thank you. I'll let my colleague Dr. Tonio Sadik from the Assembly of First Nations complete our collective statement.

[Tonio Sadik, First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study]

Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here this evening.

We appreciate the opportunity to present to this committee on the study.

We ask you to urgently address systemic problems relating to food, nutrition and the environment affecting first nations, and to do so in a manner that supports first nations-led leadership and solutions.

We held a workshop in Ottawa in November 2019 to review the results of this study, which we call FNFNES. Together with the 280 workshop participants, including leaders and technical staff of first nations governments and representatives of 70 of the 92 participating first nations, we developed a set of recommendations. The document “Key Findings and Recommendations for Decision-Makers” is included in the package that was provided to you.

The following recommendations are related to the issue of food security, our main concern this evening. I would like to highlight five recommendations:

First, support communities to make their own informed decisions regarding food security and food sovereignty.

Second, promote the consumption of traditional foods.

Third, incorporate a holistic approach that involves addressing social issues and socio-economic factors, such as poverty, unemployment and education, that contribute to food insecurity.

Fourth, support communities to increase their reliance on traditional food systems and build resilience against threats to food security or sovereignty, including threats such as pandemics—we know what we're talking about there—and extreme climate events or disasters, such as flooding, droughts and wildfires.

Finally, fifth, ensure good drinking water quality and trust in the safety of public water systems.

That's the end of our presentation this evening. I turn it back to you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thank you very much. That was really well done.

I know our questioners will be eager to get to you.

I have, for six minutes in the first round, Eric, Larry, Madam Bérubé and Rachel Blaney.

Eric Melillo, please go ahead, for six minutes.

[Eric Melillo, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank all of our witnesses for joining us today. There was a lot of great testimony already, and I'll try to get in as many questions as I can.

One of the things that was mentioned was how important traditional food is for northern and indigenous communities. Whoever wants to speak to this, I'm wondering if you could speak more about the ways that the government can help support indigenous peoples in their ability to harvest traditional foods and have true food security.

[Tonio Sadik]

I can perhaps begin. Thank you for the question.

I want to stress that perhaps the most important facet in recognizing the importance of traditional food is the recognition that traditional food in not just about nutrition. Where nutrition is, of course, extremely important and is a factor in numerous ways—and the FNFNES study is focused on that centrally, for sure—there must be a recognition that traditional foods cannot simply be substituted by store-bought foods.

There are a wide variety of reasons that is the case—and perhaps committee members are already well aware—but let me very quickly note that apart from nutritional considerations, which are also a significant factor, the role that traditional food plays for first nations is critical in cultural terms, in terms of the practices of food gathering and in ceremonial terms. Traditional food, in this sense, represents so much more than nutrition. When traditional foods become unavailable or scarce, or if people are worried that there are safety concerns, which in most cases there are not, then we see a sort of breakdown in related social systems. That really underscores the importance of traditional food for nutrition and for so many other reasons.

I'll stop there to see if any of my colleagues want to add to that.

[Dr. Malek Batal]

I'll just add that, for all the reasons Tonio mentioned, we cannot replace traditional food with market food.

On top of that, the market food that is available in communities, based on our study and many other studies, is of poor quality. This is a combination of issues related to access and financial access at the population level. These are compounding factors that make the alternatives not interesting in many ways, as Dr. Sadik mentioned, but also particularly in terms of nutrition.

As we mentioned in our statement, what we are seeing in terms of chronic disease is major. When we have three times the rate of diabetes, this is very much concerning to all of us.

[Eric Melillo, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

I would like to get one more question in.

You mentioned, as well, about remote communities and obviously the unique challenges they face. I have many remote and isolated first nation communities in my riding in northwestern Ontario.

Again, whoever would like to speak to it, I am curious whether you can talk more about what sorts of infrastructure and transportation investments you feel should be prioritized by the government to help bridge that gap in terms of getting goods to the remote communities.

[Dr. Laurie Chan]

Malek, go ahead first.

[Dr. Malek Batal]

Based on what Tonio mentioned, I think it's not only an issue of getting the food there but also of getting greater access to the traditional food that is available in the environment and making sure that remains available.

We mentioned the barriers in terms of people's access to that very healthy traditional food, so I would start by removing those barriers first. Then, when it comes to providing access to other foods, many communities have their own solutions, and I think those need to be first explored and discussed with them. Some communities have subsidies for traditional food harvesting. Other communities have gardens, and others have their own stores. The answer might lie there, but I think that the government could support these initiatives financially much more than it does now.

In terms of subsidies, as we mentioned, in communities where nutrition north is present, the prices are not much lower than in places where it's not present. I think those programs need to be thought over, and perhaps subsidies increased so that access to healthy food can be improved.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

You have about 20 seconds, Eric.

[Eric Melillo, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

I'll cede that to you, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thank you very much.

My speaking order now shows Marcus Powlowski.

Go ahead, please, for six minutes.

[Marcus Powlowski, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I was really interested in the recommendations that came out of this study and in some things that weren't on the list. We heard from one of the chiefs from NAN on northern communities, fly-in communities in northern Ontario, and he certainly talked about the high price of food and the fact that in many places there was just one store, giving a kind of monopoly to one provider.

Do you not think that one factor in food insecurity in these communities is the fact that there isn't any competition, that there is only one provider with basically a monopoly on the sale of food?

That's for Mr. Batal, maybe, but I don't know if someone else can better answer it.

[Dr. Malek Batal]

Sure. I was just letting others speak if they wanted to.

I think this is a very valid point. Often in communities competition is non-existent. However, as I mentioned earlier, this is but one aspect of the problem. For example, we found in our analysis that it really also depends on the household and their ability to access the food. In households where people are on social assistance or are unemployed, it's much harder for these people to access healthy food. We found a clear association between those instances and food insecurity.

On the other hand—this might be an interesting observation—in households where there was an elder, a person who was on the old age pension, food insecurity was lower. There are issues that are not just at the store level. Definitely these are problems and subsidies could help with that, but there are also social issues and poverty issues that are at the community level and the household level that contribute to the problem by limiting financial access to healthy food.

[Marcus Powlowski, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

That's probably a good segue into my second question.

You mentioned that there is twice the incidence of obesity and three times the incidence of diabetes in first nation communities. Having been a doctor who has worked in such communities and lived in such communities and knows the cost of things, is not one of the problems the fact that the affordable foods, such as pop, chips and canned stuff, are often not the healthiest foods? In terms of solutions, do we perhaps not give enough subsidies for good kinds of foods, which would address their long dietary problems leading to health problems?

[Dr. Malek Batal]

Absolutely. Many of us have been to many communities, and the more remote the community, often the smaller the store and the more it looks like a convenience store more than anything else. I think that's a problem of food environment. You choose to consume from what is available to you. That's a major issue in many communities.

Regardless of people's knowledge about food and capacity, there is also the problem of the availability of the options. There probably should be more subsidies for healthy food and perhaps greater competition, if that is the answer, but often in small communities there is no room for more than one store in terms of the population size. Would that always be an obstacle to better prices? I don't know.

[Marcus Powlowski, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Another thing that I noticed wasn't in the recommendations but was one of the things you stated coming out of the study was that half the people thought that the traditional foods they had wouldn't last until they got more. That suggested to me, unless I got this wrong, that the problem is with storage and refrigeration. Ought we do more in terms of communal refrigeration and storage to address that particular problem?

I think some places have in fact done that. They have been quite successful in having freezers where people bring a moose that's for the whole community.

[Dr. Laurie Chan]

I can answer that. We've seen many communities that have their own solutions. One common solution is to have a communal freezer with a communal harvest program. The elders take the young kids out for hunting, and then place the slaughtered food in the communal freezer. That way they can share with whomever needs it in the community.

We emphasize that many of the solutions can come from the communities, but oftentimes they don't have the resources to implement them. A couple of programs that can eventually support local solutions would probably be the most effective solutions.

[Marcus Powlowski, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Are there presently resources that would allow communities to acquire freezers for that kind of thing?

[Dr. Laurie Chan]

There are some programs available. Each community has to apply for them themselves. Sometimes the challenge is that they spend a lot of time putting proposals together, and some communities may not have the capacity to implement those proposals.

Capacity building is also another challenge we need to look at. When we roll out programs, we need to consider that some communities may need more help in accessing those programs than others.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Ms. Bérubé, for six minutes, please go ahead.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good day to you. I represent the residents, including the Cree and Anishinabe peoples, of the vast riding of Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, in Quebec.

Your study on food systems and traditional foods has shown that both cost and transportation are issues.

What recommendations do you think we should make to improve food quality for residents?

[Dr. Malek Batal]

That's an interesting question.

I thank you for your question.

We found that traditional food was higher in nutritional quality than market food. Greater access to traditional food would be a step toward greater nutritional quality in the diet. There are also issues of access to healthy food within the communities.

As described earlier, many communities have one store that doesn't always carry the healthiest food. When the food is there, let's say fruits and vegetables—and that's anecdotal as we didn't measure that in the study, but we saw it as we went back to the communities to report results and do the study—they do not stay fresh for long. The quality is often very compromised, so you don't want to buy those fruits and vegetables at the prices they are.

Even if they were much cheaper, there's a problem of transportation, or whatever it is, a problem of logistics, that makes it very hard for those foods to arrive in sufficiently acceptable quality for people to want to consume them and pay the high price to do so.