Good evening, everybody. Bonjour.Kwe kwe. Ullukkut.
Thank you for inviting me to discuss and respond to your questions on food security in the north.
Northern and isolated communities are especially impacted by the higher costs of groceries, as food and other items have to travel long distances to get to their destination.
I am encouraged to be here today to discuss the federal government’s strategy to help address food security in the north and the Arctic, including the nutrition north Canada program and the ways we can all work together to make it work better.
Launched in 2011, nutrition north is aimed at helping northerners save on food and essential items. Since then, we have made significant investments to grow the program to better support northerners, always in collaboration with our northern partners and communities.
Since its inception in 2011, the annual investment in nutrition north has more than doubled, introducing expanded eligibility, new partnerships and a suite of other measures to better address food insecurity. In budget 2024, we’ve committed an additional $23.2 million for nutrition north’s subsidy program.
During my travel to northern communities, I have witnessed the high costs of food and spoken to community members about the impact this subsidy is having. There is room for improvement, but these subsidies are making a difference. This past February, the price of 18 large eggs in Kinngait, Nunavut, would have been $14 without the subsidy; instead, it was $7.99. In Igloolik, Nunavut, four litres of milk would have cost $42, compared to $5.69 with the subsidy.
These are meaningful decreases in price, but we know there is more work to do and the program can be improved. I am committed to ensuring that 100% of this subsidy is passed on to consumers and will continue to engage with our partners and different communities to always ensure that nutrition north is as effective as it can be.
We know that the subsidy alone isn’t enough to support food security in the north, so we have also created the harvesters support grant and the community food programs fund. It's important to note that these programs were co-developed with indigenous and northern partners to support culturally relevant harvesting and food-sharing practices in 112 communities in the north. We've heard from partners that the design of these initiatives is working and that they are a meaningful step to not only addressing food security but strengthening food sovereignty and collaboration between our government and northerners.
Since 2020, more than 15,000 harvesters have been supported, and over 700 new food-sharing initiatives and 410 community hunts and harvests have taken place. In Manitoba, two large hunts with 11 hunters took place in Barren Lands First Nation, which provided more than 100 households with one caribou each. To put that into perspective, that's between 175 and 200 pounds of meat, not to mention the leather, the fur and other pieces of a caribou that can be used. Wasagamack First Nation and St. Theresa Point First Nation each participated in 20 fishing derbies and shared their catch within their communities.
In budget 2024, we've allocated $101.1 million over the next three years to support the harvesters support grant and the community food programs fund so they can continue doing their good work.
Nutrition north is more than just a food subsidy program. It's also a harvesters support grant and a community food program. It is always evolving and seeking to improve programming by engaging directly with our northern communities. We have a nutrition north Canada advisory group, an indigenous working group, researchers and the Inuit-Crown food security working group. We are all working together to keep food on the tables of homes in the north and the Arctic.
We have started an internal review of the retail subsidy program, after which an external audit of the program will take place.
Additionally, with funding from the food security research grant portion of nutrition north, we are supporting five indigenous-led research projects that will inform program improvements as we move forward.
I'm looking forward to a very productive discussion, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you so much.