Ottawa renews Inuit Child First Initiative funding, tops up Nutrition North

The federal government is committing $575 million over five years to Inuit children’s services and more than $610 million over four years to northern food subsidies in this year’s federal budget.

The Liberal government released its budget for 2026-27, titled “Masters of our Destiny,” on Thursday.

It proposes renewing the Inuit Child First Initiative and transitioning it to Pirutsiagutiit, an Inuit-designed program developed with Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the four Inuit treaty organizations.

The $575-million commitment would begin in the 2027-28 fiscal year. Pirutsiagutiit is expected to begin April 1, 2027, and will be operated by the treaty organizations or their designates, according to ITK.

Launched in September 2018, the Inuit Child First Initiative provides health, social, educational and other support to Inuit children and youth. Funding for the program ran out in 2025 and it has received one-year top ups since then, with the promise to retool it.

ITK had requested $600 million over five years for Pirutsiagutiit in its pre-budget submission. 

The budget also proposes $610.3 million over four years, beginning in 2027-28, for Nutrition North Canada and associated initiatives. It includes another $118.1 million in 2031-32, followed by $117 million annually.

Nutrition North subsidizes shipping costs for eligible food and essential goods in remote northern communities and supports harvesting and community food programs. 

It spent $163 million subsidizing nutritious food in 124 northern communities in the 2025-26 fiscal year, including in communities in Nunavut and Nunavik.

Ottawa also announced a $30-million top-up in February.

The funding comes as the government considers changes following a review led by former Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. president Aluki Kotierk.

She recommended expanding the subsidy to all items sold in eligible communities, rather than limiting it to products classified as nutritious. Her review also questioned whether retailers passed the full value of subsidies on to consumers.

The budget describes the new funding as an expansion and stabilization of Nutrition North and related initiatives.

This approach to Nutrition North will “maintain the inefficiencies of the current program,” with no funding identified for reforms to address food insecurity in Inuit Nunangat, ITK said in a Nov. 5 news release.

ITK also criticized the lack of Inuit-specific housing and infrastructure funding, noting the budget allocates $30 billion for First Nations housing and infrastructure but does not mention comparable investments for Inuit communities.

“Aside from the welcome funding for Pirutsiagutiit, the broader sustainability of our communities is not reflected in this budget,” ITK President Natan Obed said in the release. “Building projects is not enough. The lack of investment in building healthy Inuit communities is a risk to this country.”

Conservative MP Billy Morin, the party’s shadow minister for Indigenous services, called the Nutrition North funding “a Band-Aid,” saying the program is not audited effectively.

“What a Conservative government would do is truly sit down with northerners, Inuit people and jurisdictions and groups and organizations and governments, to let it be defined more by them,” he said Friday in an interview.

ITK’s pre-budget submission also called for a $7,500 refundable tax credit for low-income residents of Inuit Nunangat, legislation to establish Inuit Nunangat University, funding for a national Inuit identity card and Inuit-led justice services.

It also proposed a $1-billion fund for Inuit housing and infrastructure. Budget 2026 does not include specific commitments for those proposals.

Liberals MPs Mandy Gull-Masty, who represents the Nunavik region, and Nunavut’s Lori Idlout were not available for interviews about the budget, nor was NDP northern affairs critic Leah Gazan.