MLA: Nunavut should use GLOs to monitor food prices

Use GLOs, not volunteers to monitor food prices, suggests Quttiktuq MLA Ron Elliott March 7 in the Nunavut legislature. (FILE PHOTO)

The Government of Nunavut should direct its under-used and poorly-equipped community government liaison officers or GLOs to check food prices in Nunavut retail stores, Quttiktuq MLA Ron Elliott suggested March 7.

The project, as presented by Peter Taptuna, Nunavut’s minister responsible for the anti-poverty secretariat, would rely on volunteers to record food prices in stories on a regular basis and see whether the subsidies that retailers receive through Nutrition North are passed to consumers.

That’s a good idea, but its food-monitoring project should make use of community government liaison officers, Elliott said in the legislative assembly March 7.

“[But] why not cover all communities, and do the volunteers where there are no GLOs, and get the paid staff direct them to do it?” Elliott said.

There are GLOs in 16 Nunavut communities who work on helping people get the information and services they need from GN departments and agencies.

But Eva Aariak, Nunavut’s premier and minister of intergovernmental and executive affairs, couldn’t tell Elliott March 7 whether the GLOs would get involved in the food-price monitoring progam.

“When they are talking about monitoring prices, I really think they want to be able to get a person who maybe is getting paid to go into the store and keep track,” Elliott told Nunatsiaq News.

In the long run, the more information gathered could show that the Nutrition North program is not working, he said.

The monitoring program is a good step though, Elliott said. “They need to do it.”