Use it or lose it, Iqaluit says of food voucher balances
Inuit Child First Initiative funding due to expire March 31, no word of possible renewal by federal government
An important food program for Inuit children and youth in Iqaluit is coming to an end after five months. Seen here, Iqaluit city council approves the funding on Oct. 9. (File photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Updated on Wednesday, Feb. 19 at 7:30 p.m. ET
The City of Iqaluit is advising Inuit residents that federal government funding for the Inuit Child First Initiative will expire soon.
That means a food voucher program, which aims to ensure Inuit children’s social, economic and medical needs are met through vouchers distributed to families, is set to end March 31.
“Any remaining balances after this date will be forfeited back to the program. No exemptions or extensions will be granted beyond this date,” the city said in a public service announcement Tuesday.
In Iqaluit, Northmart, Arctic Ventures, Inuulisautinut Niuvirvik, D. J. Specialities, Northern Shopper and Bayside Foods are taking part in the program. Inuit wishing to transfer their accounts to a different store must do so by Feb. 20, the announcement said.
The city also asked Inuit residents to ensure no remaining funds are left unused at a store after transferring accounts.
The Inuit Child First Initiative is funded by Indigenous Services Canada.
Announced last October, it provides $500 per month to parents of any Inuk child under 18 years old to cover the cost of food and an additional $250 for children age four and under for items like baby formula or diapers.
Iqaluit city council approved the funding Oct. 9 and budgeted $5.4 million for the program.
Other hamlets such as Naujaat, Rankin Inlet, Arviat and Pangnirtung have also implemented their own versions of the food voucher program over the past year.
With the uncertainty around the future of Inuit Child First Initiative funding, the City of Iqaluit incorporated ending the program on March 31 into its planning.
Representatives for the federal government have been asked numerous times whether the initiative will be extended beyond March 31. With Parliament prorogued until March 24, government officials have repeatedly said any extension is contingent on a parliamentary vote.
Nunavut MP Lori Idlout has called on the government to extend the program. On Feb. 3, she wrote an open letter to Nunavut’s mayors highlighting their concerns about the termination of the program.
Editor’s note: This article was updated from its originally published version to add two companies to the list of businesses participating in the food voucher program in Iqaluit.
They spent the $, it’s a gift card. Why would they be so trigger happy to pull it back? Leave this for the people who need it. Don’t take it away from them. Terrible decision.
Except this is not just for the needy, it is for all Inuit. There are some inuit families making over $200K a year also in this program. Is that fair for kids of any background going hungry?
I don’t think it is the City of Iqaluit’s decision. All Inuit Child First Initiative funding is currently set to expire April 1 and as of now they won’t let anyone keep or use funding past that day.
This food security program set many people up to fail!
Many people living below the poverty line before this program were content with their living condition, now they got this extra funding and their spending habits charged, their diet changed, now they are used to a new comfort of living. To pull the funding away now will be like pulling the rug out from under them and for the people who really need it will be disaster. They will fall below the normal living they had before this program, they are going to suffer the greatest.
The next in line will be all those double income families who were getting by pay cheque to pay cheque before the program who went out and got loans to purchase new trucks or snowmobiles. Before the program they could not afford this payment but because they ended up getting $500 per child per month for food, all of a sudden they had extra disposable income and could afford a new truck or snowmobile payment. After the funding dries up they will not even be able to put food on the table because all the pay cheques will be going towards paying bills. Foolish for them to purchase a big ticket item and have a new bill to pay every month. You will be forced to decide to pay your new vehicle or snowmobile payment or put food on the table. Your credit is going to turn to crap which will affect you the rest of your life.
For those who’s played it smart saved their extra disposable income will be okay……for a while but it will not last because the Northwest Company has jacked up food prices in the past 6-9 months because of the increased demand and they will not drop the prices when the funding ends either. Prices will remain high and Northwest Company Profits are going to surge., CEO’s bonuses are going to surge.
I forecast that In the next 6 to 8 weeks local sell swap pages are going to be flooded with some great deals. These local sell swap pages are a great economic indicator how well our communities are doing. Past few months the local sell swap pages have been quite but when this funding is no longer there in April they will get flooded with some great deals on cell phones, tvs, ATVs, snowmobiles, furniture, tablets etc.
I called this when they rolled out this food security program 12 months ago.
How much did their diet change though?
A part of the problem we don’t talk about much, or enough, is knowledge around food. What foods are healthy? How do you prepare foods in ways that makes them taste better and retain their nutrients. How to shop for and utilize non-processed foods, which are almost always cheaper. How to store food. These factors make a huge difference for your nutritional return on dollars spent.
NTI announced a few months ago that they were launching an investigation into reports that stores had increased their prices as soon as the grocery vouchers were launched in each community. Wonder where that investigation is at. But no doubt, prices that have gone up certainly won’t be going down now that this program is ending. Gov needs to stop rolling out these short-term fixes, which really put people at a bigger disadvantage when they decide to strip the programs, and start thinking about long-term, sustainable solutions
TMZ of the north strikes again
Can NN show the source document they got the headline quote from?
Check out City of Iqaluit news release
If you read the whole article, you can click on the underlined words “approved the funding Oct. 9” where the original article stated that the funding is until March 31st, 2025. Additionally, you can head to the city of Iqaluit’s website to see the media release they did, which is where Nunatsiaq is pulling the information from. The internet is a great thing, you should consider using it other than to comment negative stuff 🙂
The headline quote is not a quote, because it is note in quotations. This is clearly a saying that Nunatsiaq has given to the situation through its powerful deductive reasoning skills. Maybe you should take a lesson?
Nunatsiaq’s “powerful deductive reasoning skills”?
Your sarcasm-detection skills may need some refining.
Well, it’s either that or your delivery.
Jordan’s Principal original purpose was to help families. That needed it most. There was no over sight by the government. To make sure that the most needy received the funding. Consequently there was so much abuse of the program. The program has lost it’s funding. Whose too blame the government for no proper over sight.
And the abuse by people receiving Jordan’s Principal.
No more cheap pampers to buy in front of the Northern in Iqaluit.
JP’s original purpose was for healthcare. But it is eye opening to see the abuse of JP published on CBC. Modeling headshots, skidoo, lawn mower, etc. I saw someone boasting about their $800 apple headphones with funds they got from JP. That is abuse. When ICFI was running, there are still people begging for leftovers/food in facebook, what gives? They have funding for food for their kids, no?
I have extended family who used it to apply for new furniture for their home. They make good money, incidentally, they just don’t know how save. Oh well, no worries, JP will save you from the oppression of good money management.
The GN was unable to provide oversight. The funds were given to NTI to distribute and manage. NTI also paid Inuit to vote. In a democracy, being paid to vote.
So if you had 7 kids under 18, that’s $3500.00 a month plus if say 4 were the age of four or under that’s another $1000.00 a month.
So $4500.00 a month for having 7 kids, it’s no wonder kids are popping out kids left and right, they are getting paid better than most people across Canada. I wonder if people in the south get this kind of payoffs for popping out kids, I don’t think so.
This was part of the Jordon’s Principal roll out so all indigenous people were eligible.
Doesn’t mean it’s right that because of race people get outrageous benefits, the rest of Canadians do not get that amount of money for child family allowance. I guess its just one more benefit handed out as a freebie because of race up here in the north.
If you can’t afford food why are you having kids (plural) in the first place? More government handouts. Socialism at work. One step away from communism. Hand out after hand out with no real life solutions. The generational poverty continues. No wonder the US sees TOTAL weakness in Canada. Does Iqaluit even have clean drinking water yet? Or how about the phoney housing crisis despite there being about 74 EMPTY housing units the GN is sitting on? You won’t talk your way out of that. Nunavut needs REAL leadership. It will never happen if you’re always looking in the rear view mirror. You need forward free thinkers.