Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for your question, Ms. Bérubé. It is a key issue. We want to make sure that the subsidy goes to the people it is intended for, the people in the North. So we have put in place a series of transparency measures. First, suppliers must have agreements with us to give us

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'

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  To be clear, when it's not spent, it's reinjected into the program, so we're making enhancements. Some of the enhancements I mentioned in 2019 are enhancements that are due to an injection of funds into the program to expand the scope and the level of subsidy. We're constantly ma

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I don't have that myself, but perhaps my colleague from Indigenous Services Canada in the first nations and Inuit health branch may have something to add to that.

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 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  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  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  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