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NUNAVUT
It's smooth sailing so far for Nutrition North Canada, according to the North West Company and the federal government, three weeks after the program went into full effect.

"We haven't heard anything since Oct. 1," said North West Company executive vice-president Michael McMullen, referring to potential pushback this winter regarding high prices. "We obviously follow some websites, and we haven't seen any identification by our customers of price increases, so we think the transition has gone OK, but I'm still concerned for our customers down the road."

A federal government representative says the program's transparency is showing Northerners they aren't getting a raw deal.

"(Retailers) are required to demonstrate that on a per-product or qualifying-product basis that cost for the consumer in the community is lower," said Greg Rickford, the parliamentary secretary for Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada Minister John Duncan. "That kind of transparency is the strength of this program. So far, the evidence supports the argument that it is more transparent under Nutrition North than under Food Mail because we had no compliance mechanisms under the Food Mail program to ensure that there wasn't an additional amount of money applied to the cost of a good."

The program's implementation, which took place over 18 months, gave retailers time to plan for the 2012-13 winter season. North West Company stores stocked up with two months' extra supply of sealift goods for products dropped from the list, McMullen said.

"It's not going to have the negative effect on our customers until the end of the sealift supply," he said of the fact the program ends subsidies for items that can be brought in by sealift. "And then, we were very judicious on making sure we had the product that had 52 weeks of shelf life in it, that we got in as much as we could so our customers will not be facing high prices. By doing that, we avoid an immediate price increase on a lot of staple products."

His company is recommending the government drop subsidies for Carnation evaporated milk and similar products with long shelf lives, which could be brought in by sealift instead.

"With our company alone, products of that nature would save the program $1.1 million, and (the government could put) the money they save into whatever they deem next," he said.

Going forward, Rickford, a former nurse in Cambridge Bay and Arviat, said the program needs to ensure shipments of country food, which Food Mail did not subsidize, take up an increasing portion of the subsidy.

"I think we have to continue to understand two issues: one, that country and traditional food suppliers are participating in the program, and if they're not, to understand why they're not," he said. "The country food component is so new to everyone, including suppliers, that I don't think we've seen enough data to evaluate the success of that component."

In the end, the mission is to ensure the cost of essentials is low, and that retailers are passing on savings.

"(The goal is) to ensure our monitoring and evaluation tools (ensure) that this process remains transparent, and that people in communities can appreciate and do experience point-of-purchase cost reductions in the perishable foods the Nutrition North program has been mandated to reduce the costs of, and that those are actual savings," he said.

"Prices for food and non-food items that Northerners rely on have always been high," he said. "The real issue is what role ... the federal government (should) play in at least subsidizing at the point of purchase certain perishable goods."

If Northerners have any concerns, he recommends they bring them to the Nutrition North Canada advisory board.

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