Uqaqtittiji, families in Nunavut have so few economic opportunities that many families end up relying heavily on government programs. Many are on income support. Indeed, some have supplemental benefits like the Canada child benefit, which is not sufficient to meet the high cost of living.
Even when the Liberals offer programs like the nutrition north program, it fails to feed families. Why? It is because the program subsidizes for-profit corporations like the Northern Store. The Northern Store had profits in the hundreds of millions while it was allowed to put our tax dollars into the pockets of shareholders.
The Liberals did one good thing: They created the hamlet food voucher program within the Inuit child first initiative. The funny thing is that once they realized they did a good thing, they immediately cancelled the programs having positive impacts on Inuit families. While I share this based on feedback from hundred and thousands of families in Nunavut, this will not be enough for the Trump-loving Liberals.
I have data to share. The Qajuqturvik Community Food Centre in Iqaluit collected data during the hamlet food voucher program on what happened when the program was cancelled without consultation or explanation. When the ICFI hamlet food voucher program was running, the number of visits to the Qajuqturvik declined. All of a sudden, the food voucher program was feeding families and bills were being paid.
The community of Pangnirtung has similar data. In May 2025, the community reported in its evaluation that during the program, families were able to pay their bills. They reported that families finally had enough support to provide healthy foods. In the community, 95% accessed the program. It is interesting to share that the Northern Store reported an increase of 1.9% in its quarterly reports at the end of July.
When former Liberal minister of northern affairs Dan Vandal kept refusing to answer my questions, I had the indigenous and northern affairs committee agree to study the barriers to providing affordable groceries by bringing in CEOs of Canadian North, Calm Air, the Northern Store and a local co-op from Nunavut. We learned through the study that the CEO of the Northern Store earned millions in income. We also learned that only 76¢ of every dollar went to food subsidies at the Northern Store.
Having—