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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - An interim report on the food mail program offered to remote Northern communities proposes eliminating individual orders, angering some residents in the North.

Debbie Gordon-Ruben, the senior administrative officer in Paulatuk, said eliminating the personal order option would be taking a step backward in alleviating the already high cost of fresh, healthy and quality food.

An interim review of the federal government's food mail program offered to remote Northern communities is proposing changes to the system, including eliminating the ability for people to purchase food, forcing them to shop at their local store. - Andrew Livingstone/NNSL photo

She said almost half the community makes personal orders. To have that taken away will cause problems for many people, especially families, she said.

"The Northern store don't order family-size packages, so when we do food mail we order family-size products, the ones that are going to last us a month and not just a few days, she said.

"It's a cheaper option for us ... so many of us here would be cut off and when we're waiting for food because our store takes a long time for stuff to come in."

The federal report released in late April proposes several changes to the $64.5-million program, up in cost by $8.4-million from last year. One goal is to find ways to make the program more effective, efficient and affordable. The program has needed additional annual funding since the late 1990s. The report projects by 2011-12, "due to rising transportation costs and demand, partly spurred by population growth" funding for the program could top $80-million annually.

Other proposed changes include limiting entry points of food delivery and increasing accountability to ensure retailers are passing savings on to consumers.

Gordon-Ruben said many households purchase meat pack orders, a large selection of meat that lasts a longer period than buying individual cuts.

"With a quota on caribou, we order our meat packs through them, so we'd be stuck," she said. "We're only allowed so many caribou so that lessens the amount of meat we have stored in our freezers. In order to supplement the lack of traditional meat we have we get big orders.

"It might affect the health of the people, but it certainly will be a disadvantage (to) our residents to take away an option to get food at a lesser price, our staple foods like fresh produce, meats and rice and stuff like that."

The report states only five per cent of all food mail orders are personal so removing the option would only affect a limited number of people. However, the report stated that "eliminating personal orders may allow Northern retailers to increase their buying power and capacity to purchase more foods in bulk at lower prices. This could result in lower food prices for Northern consumers, especially those who cannot take advantage of personal orders."

Dean McLeod, recreation co-ordinator in Aklavik, said they do a lot of ordering for big events through food mail to cut back on costs and said the elimination of this option could cause some problems, especially in more remote communities.

"I've used it for the hamlet quite a bit because we get our supplies for our big events like Aboriginal Day," he said.

"It's going to be hard in some communities because not everyone has a retailer that stocks everything you need. Some communities that don't carry a wide variety of produce, it will affect them."