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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A call from regular MLAs to make milk cheaper in communities appears to be curdling. Even though Health Minister Sandy Lee says the government is still looking at the recommendation, she has stopped short of implementing such a program.

Residents in some communities pay three times the price Yellowknifers do for their milk, said Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley. Bromley, and the rest of the regular MLAs, called for the government to push through a milk subsidy back in September, to reimburse residents paying as much as triple compared to Yellowknifers. The plan never made it into the budget. - Herb Mathisen/NNSL photo

On Sept. 22, all regular MLAs called on the government to provide residents in communities where milk costs were as much as triple the cost compared to Yellowknife with coupons which would cover the difference between their prices and the capital city's.

The idea was brought forward to make milk a more affordable option for families and especially children.

"Milk is the single most important nutrient that young children require for healthy development," Robert McLeod, then-chairman of the social programs committee, and MACA minister said at the time.

"But in the North, it is also the most expensive. Making sure children have enough milk to drink means preventing considerable health problems from developing late in life."

Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley said residents in communities like Sachs Harbour or Paulatuk pay three times what Yellowknifers do for milk. MLAs called for the government to include the subsidy in this budget.

"That has not happened," said Bromley, who conducted much of the initial research on the program.

Bromley has raised the issue a number of times but hasn't heard much in commitment from the government.

He said he once heard a $1.3 million price tag attached to the program from Lee.

Later, in correspondences with Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger, regular MLAs were told the government may look at tying the initiative in with income support food baskets.

Bromley said he's been getting "mixed messages" from the government. He called the subsidy a "no-brainer."

Lee did not say whether the government was going to implement the program, instead pointing to other government initiatives that already reduce the cost of living and of healthy food in the NWT. She pointed to $9 million in territorial power subsidies, $2 million in healthy living and nutritional food promotion and the income support food basket program.

"I'm not denying it's a good thing," she said of the proposed milk subsidy, but added "the work we do can't be so narrowly focused on just one product."

"Eating healthy and making sure people have good eating goes beyond milk," she said.

She said the government has programs informing residents where they can get their calcium from their traditional foods.

"Milk is not necessarily part of the traditional diet," she said.

Bromley said committees have heard that calcium and vitamin D deficiencies are prevalent in the NWT, and added soft drinks are much cheaper in communities than milk.

The MLA said issues like diabetes, bone and tooth development and the prevention of some kinds of cancer were all reasons for moving kids from pop to milk.

"A healthy body has a lot less of a drain on the health care system too," said Bromley, adding he would like to see test cases on the matter.

Asked about the status of the program, Lee said the recommendation was "still under review."

Bromley said it was now up to the government to come up with a program.

"They've tried to put it to bed," he said, but vowed the milk subsidy was not a dead issue with regular MLAs. He said MLAs had written the minister another letter to urge her to push the program forward.