Ottawa shifts Nutrition North into first gear

Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq speaks with reporters in Iqaluit March 9. Aglukkaq, along with northern affairs minister John Duncan announced the federal government will extend subsidies to a wider range of products until October, 2012, giving Northern residents and businesses more time to adjust to the new Nutrition North Canada program. (PHOTO BY CHRIS WINDEYER)

Ottawa is hitting the brakes on its controversial Nutrition North Canada program in the wake of complaints by Northerners that the scheme actually drove up food prices instead of lowering them.

Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq, the federal health minister, and northern affairs minister John Duncan announced the Conservative government is extending the new subsidy scheme to food and non-food items that were taken off the eligible list last October. (See new eligiblity list, embedded at bottom of page.)

“We think the program is sound, but the timeline was overly aggressive,” Duncan told reporters in Iqaluit March 9.

Federal officials hope the extra time will allow retailers to stock up on non-perishable foods — which will no longer be subsidized as of October, 2012 — using sealift, which is much cheaper than air cargo.

The changes mean items like ice cream, bacon and processed foods will be covered until October 2012 by a federal shipping subsidy that is supposed to be passed on to consumers.

Nutrition North was intended to limit government subsidies to fresh produce and meat, as well as country foods and other foods deemed nutritious.

Ottawa has budgeted $60 million per year for Nutrition North.

Duncan said the new timeframe could add as much as $1 million per month to the program’s cost.

Nutrition North doesn’t fully go into effect until April 1, but subsidies on non-perishable and non-food items were dropped last October.

Complaints about the new program were already brewing when a series of photos from a Northern Store in Arctic Bay, depicting a $13 bag of spaghetti, a $29 jar of Cheez Whiz, a $77 bag of breaded chicken and a $38 bottle of cranberry juice made the rounds via the internet.

The photos triggered even more outrage, even though officials with the North West Co. acknowledged the high prices weren’t caused by Nutrition North.

Instead, they said prices spiked when the Arctic Bay store ran out of items shipped on last year’s sealift and had to bring in fresh supplies by air.

But many northerners don’t like the new program anyway, because so many items are no longer eligible for a subsidy.

And some retailers are worried that Nutrition North, which allows retailers to negotiate costs directly with southern suppliers, will favour larger companies who can negotiate their own lower prices.

Leo Doyle, the director of Nutrition North Canada, said the scheme should lower costs for smaller retailers by allowing them to buy from southern wholesalers, or by rolling all of their cargo together to negotiate a lower price.

A contribution agreement with the federal government would subsidize the part of the order that’s eligible under Nutrition North.

“Under both methods they’re increasing their bargaining power,” Doyle said.

Aglukkaq acknowledged that those protests caused the federal government to reexamine Nutrition North, although she refused to answer several questions about what the changes meant to her own political prospects, with a federal election widely expected this spring.

“The rising food cost is a real issue to northerners and the adjustments that we’re making to this program were in direct response to northerners,” Aglukkaq said.

Okalik Eegeesiak, president of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, said she’s glad Ottawa will take more time to implement Nutrition North, but said the program still doesn’t do enough to relieve the food insecurity that plagues many Nunavut communities.

“A single mother now can’t plan for sealift…. Our concern is not transparency or how the new program is going, our concern is how do I put food on the table?” she said.

Ron Elliott, the MLA for Quttiktuq who helped circulate the Arctic Bay grocery photos, praised the federal government’s move, going so far as to sign Aglukkaq’s nomination papers as the Conservative Party’s Nunavut candidate following a news conference.

But he said he’s still concerned that eliminating subsidies for food that’s deemed less nutritious is going to make it harder for people on fixed incomes to feed their families.

“What are you going to buy to feed your family when you’re on a limited income, social assistance or minimum wage?”

Federal officials also confirmed that they won’t appear before Nunavut MLAs to discuss Nutrition North.

Last month, the Nunavut assembly unanimously approved a motion calling on representatives from the private sector and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada to attend hearings with MLAs on the new program.

A spokeswoman for Duncan said federal officials will only discuss a federal program at Parliamentary committees.

March 9, 2011: Revised eligibility list, Nutrition North Canada