KRG asks Ottawa to postpone Nutrition North

Kuujjuaq retailer Eric Pearson at the Kativik Regional Government meeting Dec. 2, showing councillors some products eligible under the food mail program. Pearson says he’ll need at least another year to prepare for the changes announced under Nutrition North. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

KUUJJUAQ — Kativik Regional Government councillors passed a resolution Dec. 2 asking the federal government to postpone the implementation of the Nutrition North Canada food subsidy plan so the Nunavik region can assess the new program and Nunavik retailers get more time to plan.

The KRG resolution says that Indian and Northern Affairs Canada assured them as early as 2008 that they’d be consulted on the future of the food mail program, scheduled to expire in March 2009.

It goes on to say that it wasn’t until June 2009 that the KRG was formally consulted by INAC on the program’s changes, which were announced this week.

Nutrition North will replace the food mail program on April 1, 2011, providing a higher rate of subsidy for perishable food items, such as fruits, vegetables, bread, fresh meats, milk and eggs.

But the KRG resolution requests that the old list of items be maintained until an assessment can be done.

“It’s already expensive here in the North,” said KRG chair Maggie Emudluk. “We feel like the government didn’t give us a chance to evaluate the situation [nor] enough time for retailers to plan.”

Nutrition North’s new rates, released Dec. 1, offer Nunavik a subsidy that varies between $1.00 and $4.80 per kilo for the shipment of perishable nutritious food items, depending on the community.

In Kuujjuaq, for example, the size of the subsidy is set at $1.80 per kilo under the new program.

Retailers and consumers may use the air-freight subsidy to buy eligible nutritious food items, while most non-perishable items must now be shipped to the region by sealift.

Already, in an Oct. 3 transition, certain non-food and non-nutritious items were dropped from the outgoing food mail subsidy.

When INAC announced Nutrition North Canada in May 2010, the KRG says the federal department did not give Nunavik retailers enough time to acquire warehousing and order new inventory before the end of the 2010 sealift season.

Eric Pearson, co-owner of Kuujjuaq’s Newviq’vi store, told the KRG council he won’t be able to equip his business for the inventory changes until at least January 2012.

That’s a year after spending $1 million to expand his store.

“What we’re showing them is that we don’t have the time to move to a program that wants to move to sealift,” Pearson said.

“We heard about this in May and had to adjust by October. There is no way any retailer can look for financing for inventory and warehousing [in that time.)”

Pearson also slammed Nunatsiaq News for its reporting on the new program.

“We’ve had quite a bit of bad news from Nunatsiaq News over the last couple of months, that the changes will show to the people of Nunavik people that they’ve taken advantage… and abused the program. I don’t think anyone will accept that thinking,” he said.

Pearson said the program could mean a 32 per cent increase in food prices for his Kuujjuaq customers.

“Items announced this week will have a negative impact on all of us,” he told regional councillors Dec. 2. “Your pay cheque won’t go as far.”

During a discussion about Nutrition North, some councillors pointed out that individual consumers do not have the space to store bulk stock shipped by sealift into already overcrowded housing.

Although the thrust of the program is to make it cheaper to eat more nutritious food, Aliva Tulugak , vice-president of the Féderation des Cooperatives du Quebec, referred to the program as “Malnutrition north.”

“If this program isn’t changed, the price of items will be increased drastically and we’ll be seeing a big impact in the new year,” Tulugak told councillors by conference call.

In the meantime, Nunavimmiut can make their concerns known to Kuujjuaq nutritionist Marie-Josée Gauthier, who has been named to a seven-member advisory board set up to provide the federal government with advice on Nutrition North.

“We’re lucky we have a representative in Kuujjuaq that we can use as a sounding board,” Pearson said. “She’s a nutritionist and she knows what we’re going through in the north.”

A certified copy of the KRG resolution will be sent to INAC minister John Duncan.