Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I wonder if our chief financial officer would have the details of that in front of her. I don't have that figure in front of me.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I want to give this question the full attention it deserves. Perhaps I can take this back, reflect upon it, see where assistance could be provided, and respond with what it is we're doing to adjust the subsidy to maximize its use and its impact on the ground. Perhaps we can get b

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I would just say that this, I think, would fit into programming perhaps in Agriculture Canada, for instance, that put out its food strategy recently. It has some programming.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for your question. We constantly monitor the rate of food insecurity. Improvements that wer made recently, in 2019, may not yet be fully reflected on the ground. For example, I mentioned the new harvesters support grant. Funding for this grant will be allocated imminen

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for your question. I do not want to downplay food insecurity, which is very important. It is through dialogue with our partners that we will be able to reach solutions. We have a program and we can adjust the parameters of the program. However, by engaging in a broade

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It is always a preoccupation for us to make sure that we're hearing from partners and that we are sensitive to their preoccupations. We look for representation of Inuit within our ranks, of course. That is important. For instance, in the Nunavut regional office we're looking to g

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I mentioned that I was in Resolute last week. Resolute is in Nunavut. It's 3,300 kilometres northwest of here—quite a distance. If you think Iqaluit is north, it's 1,000 kilometres from Iqaluit. It's a community of about 186 people, so it's a small community. Walking in to the A

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We're constantly looking at how we can create a balance between streamlining administration and ensuring that the subsidy actually gets passed on to the consumer. Many of the mechanisms that are in place, verifications of the claims that come in and whatnot, are there to ensure t

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  My colleagues may want to add to this, but I'll say for myself that a recent addition I mentioned is the Inuit-Crown food security working group. That entity of governance is important because it enables us to sit down with Inuit representatives from the various regions and have

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's obviously a complex issue with many facets to it. I'll just say, I was in Resolute last weekend, and I was heartened to meet a young Inuit man, 19 years of age, who had been taught by his family traditional ways of hunting. He was a hunter of polar bears and of beluga whal

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  This is new. Based on the consultations that were held, there was a resounding message that northerners wanted access to such a subsidy. That is what's rolling out this year, with $40 million over eight years going to communities to organize themselves to have access to the hun

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  You're right. CanNor would apply mostly to north of 60, so the territories. That's the focus of their program for the most part. If you want to share the letter, we could commit to reaching out to the chief to see what other federal programming, for instance through our colleag

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, okay. The program terms and conditions are set. What we do is meet with an indigenous working group, for instance, to get feedback from them as to what's relevant and try to make the necessary adjustments within the programming. I think what he's talking about is a more maj

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's a good question indeed. It's a demand-driven program. We have a list of eligible foods and we aim to have the most nutritious foods so that northerners can purchase them. The total amount of subsidy is dependent on food purchased on the ground, so sometimes we find—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We make adjustments along the way to expand either the number of foods that are subsidized or the subsidy rate, to help ensure that the subsidy actually gets on the ground as much as possible. Just recently, in January, the advisory committee met, because we want to make sure we'