Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I wasn't consulted by Graeme Dargo, but at some of the sessions and in the risk assessment session, which involved all the retailers, it became quite clear that many of the recommendations that Mr. Dargo claimed came from the major retailers had not come from them at all. They de

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  You're asking for one recommendation. I'm going to try to speak quickly--not too quickly--and give you more than one. I would recommend to find a way in this subsidy program to re-level the playing field for the freight costs between companies operating in the same community for

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We're told by INAC that there will be a signage program implemented, and we intend to participate in that. It was one of the recommendations that I consistently made. I just want to correct the misrepresentation that I said I was not consulted. I didn't say I was not consulted;

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I don't intend to be crushed. I intend to survive.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Retailers can charge whatever they want, except under the food mail program, we are constantly monitored by officials from INAC. They are always in our stores doing their price checks and making sure that the system is working and that the prices for things coming under a subsidi

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We'll have the same product costs, or at least similar costs. We don't know what our air freight costs will be because we don't know what the subsidy will be. We will have more administration because we will have to do our end of initiating the claims process once a month.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, I can't give you that guarantee, for the same reasons Mr. McMullen thinks he can give you the guarantee: I don't know the rate. INAC is going to announce, some day, a community-specific subsidy for the community I'm in, and a different rate for each of the other communitie

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  April 1 doesn't bother me either, but my issues are quite different from Scott's. He's got to deliver it, I've got to receive it. I can receive it and sell it. I don't yet know what the subsidy is. There are lots of things I don't know about it, but I'll be able to do it.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Arctic Ventures wasn't consulted in the preparation of the Dargo report. We became aware of the Dargo report when the Dargo report was issued, and then we set about to oppose the unrealistic suggestions that were in it, like the point-of-sale accounting for the subsidy as a way o

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We opposed the Dargo recommendation of point of sale because if the subsidy is printed on the point of sale, it ends up on the floor in my store or in the garbage pail on the way out. Quite sensibly, INAC has opted for a signage program that they will work with all retailers in i

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can speak only for Iqaluit, but what I'm saying applies to all communities in the Baffin region. In theory, I guess, you can get supplies from anywhere as long as you have a supplier that will truck them to Val d'Or, because the only entry point is Val d'Or for the Baffin regio

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  To my knowledge, no. There has been lobbying over a number of years, from a number of parties in the past, not only me. I mean, in the 1980s and the 1990s, I used to lobby to try to get the entry point changed to Montreal or Ottawa. I ended up just giving up, because there was ne

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Okay. I'll just finish. We've been preparing for the new ordering regime by establishing relationships with potential suppliers. We've gotten our heads around the changes. We're doing what business does best: dealing with change. But there are some things we haven't yet figured

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members. I have represented Arctic Ventures in business, including the food business, since 1985 in Iqaluit. We have used the food mail program for the 25 years we have been in business in Iqaluit, and before that, at another business I owned in Arcti