Aluki Kotierk bills Ottawa $15,000 but there’s still no sign of her Nutrition North review
Federal government’s March 31 deadline to receive report passes
Aluki Kotierk has billed the federal government $15,000 for travel as the special ministerial representative chosen to prepare an external review of the Nutrition North food subsidy program. But there has been no sign of Kotierk or the review more than two weeks after its March 31 due date. (File photo)
Aluki Kotierk has billed the federal government $15,000 in travel expenses, but nothing for professional services, more than a year after she was picked to lead a review of the Nutrition North subsidy program.
But more than two weeks after the deadline to file her report with Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, there has been no sign of the report, a government spokesperson said.
The federal government announced in October 2024 it was commissioning an external review to investigate whether subsidies paid to retailers lead to lower food prices at northern grocery stores.
Kotierk, who had recently completed a term as president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., was named the minister’s special representative to head the review in February 2025. The report was due to be submitted to Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs on March 31.
As of Thursday, the department had been billed close to $15,000 in travel expenses for the external review, said Jacinthe Goulet, spokesperson for Crown-Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada.
“To date, no professional fees have been invoiced,” Goulet added, when asked if Kotierk had received any compensation for the review.
Nunatsiaq News has asked the department how much it had budgeted for the external review but did not receive a dollar figure as an answer.
“The budget will depend on the costs incurred during the review,” Goulet said.
It’s not clear where Kotierk is or what has happened to her review. Nunatsiaq News has tried several times since the end of March, including on Friday, to reach her by phone and social media but has not received a response.
Created in 2011, Nutrition North subsidizes the high cost of healthy foods and essential goods in 124 northern communities.
The budget will depend on the costs incurred during the review,” Goulet said.
Hahaha, I’m sorry, but that can’t be right.
We spend money now and then make the budget after and say that’s what we budgeted for!
I never understood from the beginning why the Feds felt that Ms. Kotierk had the knowledge, skill or expertise to undertake this kind of review. Were any invitations to submit proposals for such a review ever extended to people with real qualifications in this area? For example, there’s this person, Sylvain Charlebois, who has a PHD in this area of food pricing and economics, he teaches it in Canada and accross North America, and he is called before Parliament from time to time as an expert on the topic. Why wasn’t he invited to submit a proposal on this?? Why was it so important to sole source this thing to Ms Kotierk
It’s almost as if the quality of the output is directly proportional to the quality of the input.
Aluki Kotierk and Jacinthe Goulet represent everyone and everything that is wrong with Canada – how nearly all effort by good people is wasted by lazy, self-centered bureaucrats and politicians at the whim of their oligarch handlers. To the ‘elbows up’ crowd who don’t see what is wrong with Canada ‘you are a huge part of the problem
Nice work if you can get it.
Ok ok we know why this has not been dealt well with one simple reason,
No budget not work or was she giving a amout to work in account with at all ,
She sent a invoice close to $15k out of her pocket seems possibly if not paid don’t submit reports simple ,
Work with the agreement contract take it or leave it …
That’s not how the world works. You are hired to do a job, you get paid when you complete it. Also, it is up to her to submit invoices. The government is not allowed to pay contractors unless they are given an invoice.
Beyond the disregard for Nunavummiut by Mrs. Kotierk is the utter lack of all our so called “Politicians” calling her out and demanding answers. It is not like the Food Insecurity is not one of the Three major challenges facing Nunavummiut. So where is the New Government of Mr. Main? Where are they? Why are they not demanding answers from the FED’s. Where is the ” Oh and where is the aisle crosser Mrs. Idlout? Seen or heard from her lately? Of course not. All of them should be ashamed. Their silence is deafening!
Nunavummiut should be sick of this and everything else that just covers Nunavut like a storm cloud waiting for someone to actually do something. Housings, Social Services, Heath Care, etc., etc… everyone just accepts the non-results. Here is the secret people. These Government representatives know this and they use it to their advantage. They use it as a shield for non-performance and non-results. If you do not believe this, simply look closely at what went on the last 4 years and numerous years prior to see that what were issues “back then” are still issues but today. But even worse.
Until everyday Nunavummiut start standing up and start calling their MLA’s and MP, send letters, create petitions, speak out to the media. Start demanding they act, that they deliver, that they come up with solutions and actions. Real ones. The same old, same old, failures will continue unrelentingly and Nunavummiut’s will simply continue to suffer as a result and in 4 years we will still be exactly where we are today or perhaps even further backwards.
The sad part about all this is likely a full year is now wasted (assuming there is no report, however, I do not want to jump to conclusions). A full year wasted where someone could have been doing this review and compiling this report, and if there is to be another appointed to complete it, another year plus and likely much longer down the drain… for families who are struggling, it is easy to see how disheartening this is. Kotierk used her previous platform to criticize these kind of things and blame others for not advocating for Inuit… yet here she is, having possibly wasted a year + worth of time and platform, with no output. Shame, shame, shame. Such hypocrisy.
With potential to lower the cost of food for the north, the lack of visible consultations and report, where are the leaders in calling this out?
GN, NTI, RIAs, mayors MPs, this needs to be called out, Aluki got her southern trips in, but where is the report? So much time and resources wasted, most and more importantly people going hungry.
Where are our leaders?
in basic terms, its fiscal negligence. liberals are know to operate this way. let’s expand this, since 2015, liberals (when they got into power) have spent over 120 billion dollars on foreign aid. what are the chances that the financial reports will be made public?
Yup, the support to send tens, hundreds of millions of dollars over and over year after year into foreign aid black holes with no traceability is hard to understand.
…Somali Midwives $12,000,000 Somalia Training midwives to improve sexual and reproductive health services.
…Advancing Skills for Youth/Women $20,000,000 Lebanon Training and entrepreneurship support for women and vulnerable groups.
As if no problem if youth across Canada cannot find first entry jobs. And food banks struggle to have enough food.
NTI, QIA, KIAs, Mayors, Premier give not a whimper on the missed Nutrition North food subsidy program report date.
Gets one on wonder if Jose Kusugak were around, he’d be making table-banging comments for action. Even if a Liberal.
Then are Nunavut’s leaders too old, stuck in the 30% mindset that no matter how bad things are burning down all around them. They will not change their thinking and will stay with cemented elbows up mindset?
Then where are the under 35-year-old voices standing and speaking up? They are not the gullible puppies. Who do understand everything bad happening in Canada is not the USA and the president’s fault.
Ever wonder why no one wants to step up and into Nunavut politics? Maybe it’s because of all this unwarranted hostility towards Inuit women in the public eye. $15,000 is nothing compared to Ford’s private jet and completely realistic for the cost of travel. What’s the story here? Public waits for overdue report, yeah…not much of a story
Since when is Mrs. Kotierk all Nunavut women?
Nothing “Hostile” about the article or any of the comments and equally less to do with the fact she is a woman. But nice try though. Go back and read again. They are about accountability, performance and delivery. Not one says a single thing about women or this being a women’s issue. It is a Nunavut issue!
It does not matter if the report is two days, two weeks or two months late. The frustration voiced comes from the continuous lack of performance and accountability that no one in the Political sphere or IOG’s (male or female) In Nunavut seems to want to call out. Food Insecurity is not a joke! Nor are any of the other major issues plaguing the Territory. Nunavummiut are sick and tired of failures, sick and tired of waiting, sick and tired of the lack of accountability and most of all sick and tired of all those who are supposed to be representing them doing basically nothing!
Hostile? Nope! Angry, disenfranchised, frustrated, at wits end, etc, etc…? Absolutely. And it has absolutely nothing to do with the gender of the person.
if you were a bit late on a report you would just say so. You wouldn’t just avoid all contact
You’re right, $15,000 is pretty much nothing for travel in Nunavut. Where is she? What is she been doing? And what HAS she been doing? $15,000 is like a single trip in Nunavut. She’s supposed to have been at this for a whole year. Now she’s incommunicado while she’s off jetsetting in New York at the UN Forum on Indigenous Issues until the end of the month? Unacceptable.
Before this report comes out NWC has switch brands with many of their products. I.E. ARV; many products are now yellow (No Frills) which lowered the buying cost from wholesaler to NWC by 40% of Yellow products. The re-sale cost of this product at the till is now 30% higher from their brand before the brand switch. Most likely ACL will follow suit in re-branding their in store products. No retailer switch brands to pass the savings to the customer, but that’s their argument. No retailer ever considers anyone except those who sit in their Corp Boardrooms/Shareholders.