Food mail review done by next March

Jim Prentice, the minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, says his department’s review of the food mail program will be done before March 31, 2007, when the program’s current mandate expires.

Prentice ordered the review this past October, at a time when the food mail program faces increasing criticism, especially from people in northern communities who say it’s not well-run.

“It’s an interesting program in the sense that I continue to receive very positive feedback from everyone on what it actually achieves at the end of the day. But it’s also a program where I’ve heard criticism from many, many, many sources about how it’s administered, and there seems to be a general unhappiness about how it’s administered,” Prentice told reporters during his recent visit to Iqaluit.

Prentice said he has asked his officials to “review it entirely from stem to gudgeon.”