KRG, Makivvik plan for talks over reducing Nunavik cost of living

Makivvik and Kativik Regional Government are preparing to negotiate with the Quebec government over a new multi-year deal to reduce the cost of living in Nunavik.

The current agreement, which benefits beneficiaries of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, was reached in 2019 and expires in 2025.

“We are working with Laval University [in Quebec City] to keep track of what is happening in terms of prices” across Nunavik, KRG chairperson Hilda Snowball said in an interview.

“We are working to identify where it would require more funding [from outside of the agreement], especially when it comes to food and essentials.”

She said the university has a system that tracks prices and the volume of consumer purchases in Nunavik. The most recent report on the cost of living in Nunavik was published in 2016.

“We need the statistics for the next negotiations,” she said.

Snowball said KRG and Makivvik will soon begin planning for the negotiations, which are to open in 2025.

Maxime Tardif, a spokesperson for Quebec’s Ministry of Indigenous Relations, told Nunatsiaq News the government is waiting to review financing submissions from KRG and Makivvik.

Those submissions are expected this fall, and the government will analyze them before starting negotiations.

Makivvik did not respond to a request for comment on the negotiations.

The current agreement is separated into six programs offering assistance for elders, reduced airfare, subsidized gas prices, country food community support, and help with household appliance and harvesting equipment purchases.

Under that deal, the Government of Quebec provided $115.8 million over six years, ending in 2025.

According to data provided to Nunatsiaq News by KRG’s treasury department, since 2019 nearly $89 million of that sum has been used so far to finance the programs. And of that amount, nearly 60 per cent was used to provide rebates and discounts for food and other essentials.

KRG’s website lists items that have a discount of between 15 and 35 per cent when purchased in Nunavik stores. It includes tea, butter, flour, vegetables and fruits, and essentials like baby-care products, toilet paper and camping fuel.

In the four-year data breakdown provided by KRG, the annual cost of rebates and discounts for food and essentials increased to just over $11 million in 2023 from $9.5 million in 2019.

Of the $89 million in provincial funding that has been used since the agreement took effect, more than $11 million — or just under 13 per cent — went to gasoline subsidies for Nunavik beneficiaries.

Between 2022 and 2023 alone, the yearly amount of gas subsidies increased by nearly $1 million.

“Every year we receive the new prices from the fuel distributors,” said Snowball, adding the prices usually come from the New Quebec Co-operative Federation, or FCNQ.

“Once we know the exact price, Makivvik and KRG meet to decide by how many per cent we decrease it” through subsidies.

She said the percentage number is chosen by balancing the amount of money available and the amount of subsidy required to stabilize fuel prices for Nunavimmiut.

Starting at the age of 16, beneficiaries receive gasoline cards. Snowball said her government monitors how the cards are used, especially when it comes to gas.

“We flag which community is using a lot more and using the beneficiary number,” she said, adding “there is constant communication with the northern villages as well as the gas distributors” in order to avoid misuse of the subsidies.