Kotierk’s Nutrition North review puts onus on Ottawa to act

There’s more food for thought in Aluki Kotierk’s review of Nutrition North than expected, given how little was said in the year she was working on it and the fact it was submitted two months late.

But now that it has been published on the government’s website, the pressure shifts to Arctic and Northern Affairs Minister Rebecca Chartrand to move forward with a long-awaited, slow-going reform of the subsidy program that helps northerners with the high cost of groceries.

We’re quickly approaching the two-year mark since former northern affairs minister Dan Vandal announced in October 2024 an external review of Nutrition North. It was the Liberal government’s response to criticism that the $163-million program that subsidizes nutritious food and essential items in 124 northern and remote communities — including in Nunavut and Nunavik — wasn’t working.

Back in 2024 — with an election looming in 2025 — it felt like that external review might have been the government’s attempt to buy more time and prevent the controversial issue from blowing up.

In February 2025, the government appointed Kotierk, a former Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. president, as a special representative to the minister of Arctic and northern affairs, and gave her the task of conducting that external review.

Her March 31 deadline came and went, and there was no report. Finally, in May, she submitted her review to Chartrand.

In the 15 months Kotierk worked on the review, she couldn’t be reached for interviews about it. And the Arctic and Northern Affairs Department didn’t make her available to explain her work to the media. That didn’t inspire much confidence in the process or what the end result would look like.

But Kotierk put some interesting ideas on the table. She suggested that Nutrition North should subsidize all grocery items. Currently, Nutrition North subsidizes only nutritional foods.

A spokesperson for Chartrand confirmed the department’s interpretation of the report is the same — Kotierk’s call for Nutrition North to subsidize “all items” means an expansion of the program to cover food that’s not considered nutritional.

To make the case, Kotierk points to discrepancies like the fact Nutrition North subsidizes one type of pasta but not another — depending on the shape of the pasta.

Kotierk also suggested parliamentarians require an evaluation of food insecurity every three years.

Her review gives the government something to chew on.

Nearly two years have passed since Ottawa announced its plans to reform Nutrition North, yet nothing has changed.

Back in 2024, it seemed like the external review was to be the centrepiece of the government’s approach to reforming Nutrition North.

But in recent months, while waiting for Kotierk to submit her review, the government seemed to downplay its significance, perhaps signalling it didn’t have high expectations for it.

In 2026, whenever a Nunatsiaq News reporter asked about Kotierk’s overdue review, Chartrand or her office have played up the other parts the government’s review — the government’s own internal evaluation, grants it provided to researchers to study food prices, and a food sovereignty summit the government held in Ottawa in March.

After nearly two years getting input on how Nutrition North works — or doesn’t — it’s time for the Liberal government to move forward with the reform of the program that it promised.