Chairperson of Nutrition North Canada’s advisory resigns

Elizabeth Copland, the outgoing chair of Nutrition North Canada’s advisory board, speaks to Iqaluit residents at the board’s first public meeting there in May 2011. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

Elizabeth Copland, chair of the Nutrition North Canada advisory board, says she has resigned her position.

Copland, who lives in Whale Cove, said she informed the board of her resignation last month after missing a few board meetings due to other commitments.

“The past few months have been quite busy and I found that I couldn’t attend meetings,” said Copland, who also serves as Nunavut’s deputy coroner. “That wasn’t fair to the board.”

Copland was absent when Nutrition North representatives attended a hearing at the Nunavut legislature in October 2011 as well as at a public consultation in Kuujjuaq last November.

The advisory board, made up of eight representatives from the regions that use the federal food subsidy program, was created in 2010 to report to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development.

The board’s role has been to serve as a direct link to the people who use Nutrition North, since the controversial program was introduced to replace the former federal food mail subsidy.

Board members include Wilfred Wilcox, a Cambridge Bay businessman and Marie-Josée Gauthier, a Nunavik nutritionist as well as representatives from the Northwest Territories, Yukon, northern Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Copland said Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development has yet to find to replace her as chair, but added that “I trust any of them could take on that role.”