Where is the Nutrition North review? NDP politician wants to know
MP wants update on report, which was due March 31
Winnipeg Centre MP Leah Gazan, who is also the NDP critic for Indigenous Affairs, is calling out the government over its missing Nutrition North external review. (File photo)
An NDP MP wants to know where the external review of Nutrition North is.
The review, commissioned in February 2025, was meant to look into claims that the government’s food subsidies were not having an affect on consumer prices. The federal government appointed Aluki Kotierk to lead the review and set a deadline of March 31.
Now, more than a month past the due date, there has been no sign of the report.
Winnipeg Centre MP Leah Gazan sent a letter Thursday to Northern Affairs Minister Rebecca Chartrand, whose department oversees the program, outlining her concerns.
“Grocery costs are skyrocketing and people living in northern and remote regions of the country cannot afford healthy, nutritious food,” her letter said.
She called on the federal government to take immediate action on Nutrition North, as well as provide an update on the status of the external review.
“Northerners should not be left on the hook waiting for food while your government stalls on tabling findings from the most recent study,” she wrote.
The federal government has spent $1.6 billion on Nutrition North since the program began in 2011, according to the Departments of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs. For the current fiscal year, the government intends to spend $72 million on Nutrition North.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has shown “creativity and imagination,” Gazan said, with its newly announced sovereign wealth fund, intended to drive infrastructure projects with $25 billion in taxpayer dollars and private investment.
“But they don’t have the creativity and imagination to make sure, particularly families and children in Nunavut, aren’t starving at the checkout counter,” she said in an interview. “That is not acceptable.”
Gazan, who is also the NDP critic for Indigenous Affairs, had not spoken to Chartrand about the issue or received a response to her letter as of Tuesday.
Chartrand’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Kotierk did not respond to a request for comment.
What an embarrassment. You’d think the feds would have been smart enough to hire a pro to organize the consultations behind the scenes and ghost write the report for Kotierk. This embarrassing outcome was so predictable
Glad to see this hasn’t been forgotten. Keep pressing Aluki, her silence is an absolute disgrace.
Is this how bad things at NTI were during her presidency?
Yes it was this bad and it’s still bad as her executive staff is still at NTI, no one can work with them, no accountability, no consultations, no information. Most do not know NTI has been sitting on so much new federal funding, what is NTIs plans with all these new funding that is not getting out? Why does the NTI board continue to support this kind of incompetence?
I’m glad someone is still pushing for this review, where is our own leadership at NTI asking the same questions, where is our Premier? Where is our MP? This program has potential to lower the cost of food with a proper review.
you would think that Lori would, at least, say something. While at NDP, she was adamant about it.
All great and wonderful that the NDP is asking questions. Maybe their leader can call up Lori. I am sure he still has her number in his phone. It only took like 6 weeks for them to speak out. But at least they are speaking up.
The greater and more important question here however, is where is the Premier, members of Cabinet, MLA’s, Inuit Organizations demanding action from the FEDS? Where are the press conferences and photo-ops?
It never ceases to amaze me just how poorly people who are supposed to be representing Nunavummiut fail so miserably time and time again. Worst though, is the fact Nunavummiut just accept it as normal.
I’m just shocked that someone nominated Ms Kotierk for the UN position.
What a fraud!
The problem is in the south people do not know her very well, only the same victims speech she has done for a decade, they really do not know how little she has done to help her own people.
With her interest in living in the south with a cushy job that lets her travel.
Self interest has always been a big part and I think most of us are finally starting to see this.
Stop electing people like this, stop appointing people like this, it only hurts us in the long run,
This is why some politicians do not get back on or don’t run again knowing they will not get back in. They take cushy consultant jobs and continue to be in it for themselves while pretending to everyone they are working for us. We know a few of these people.