MP: Canada Post to be removed from food mail?

The federal government has already decided to remove Canada Post from the food mail program, Yukon MP Larry Bagnell suggested April 29 in the House of Commons, in a question to Chuck Strahl, the northern affairs minister.

“Now we hear that Canada Post has been told it will not be involved at all in the future. Would the minister explain the mechanics of the new plan for delivering food to worried, vulnerable Arctic people?” Bagnell, a member of the Liberal opposition, said in the House of Commons.

Strahl replied that Ottawa will soon announce a “revamp to that nutritious food program that is sustainable and takes into account the information we got from the North.”

But Strahl, who said his department has held more than 70 “consultative meetings” in the North, didn’t directly address the question of Canada Post’s continued involvement.

In May 2009, Strahl’s ministerial representative on the food mail issue, Yellowknife consultant Graeme Dargo, issued a report recommending the program be taken away from Canada Post and given to a regular federal department.

Right now, Canada Post operates the program known as “food mail” on behalf of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.

The program gives airlines a subsidy for shipping perishable food and other goods to northern communities from certain designated entry points, such as Val d’Or, Que.

Shipments of food and another eligible items qualify for subsidized air cargo rates of $2.25 per kilogram for Nunavut and $1.00 per kilogram for Nunavik.

About 90 per cent of the program’s $60-million-a-year budget is consumed in the eastern Arctic.

Dargo’s report found the food mail program is essential for reducing the cost of food in isolated Arctic commmunities. But he also identified numerous problems, such as the subsidy being used for the shipment of non-food items like machine parts and for non-nutritious items like frozen dinners.

And food retailers complained that Canada Post doesn’t compensate them for the cost of food that is ruined in transit and that Canada Post’s food distribution system is out of sync with theirs.

It’s expected that Ottawa’s revamped program will likely get a new name and re-focus the subsidy on to nutritious food items only.