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Food crisis
Kent Driscoll
In a recently released report, StatsCan said two-thirds of people in Nunavut reported not having enough food during the previous year due to lack of money, nearly four times the national average. Jennifer Haywood has been in Iqaluit for four years, and has been volunteering with the Niqinik Nuatsivik Nunavut Food Bank for three and a half. She sees the hungry people of Iqaluit first hand. "The demand has gone up. We used to see 30 clients per opening, now we saw 100 this year," said Haywood, the group's secretary and spokesperson. The food bank used to distribute food every week, but that pace has slowed to every two weeks. The pipes burst in their headquarters a few years ago, and they have been working on the fly ever since. "The community is very generous to us, but we could use some sort of long-term funding, that could help us. It is like anything, it is easier to do things when you know you have the money," said Haywood. Foodbanks are popping up all over Nunavut. The most recent one was just approved by the Grise Fiord hamlet council, and the Iqaluit food bank has been helping them get ready. A photo circulated in e-mails sent around the North recently that showed one litre of orange juice on sale for $22 at the Northern store in Pond Inlet has sparked a lot of conversation about food prices in Nunavut. The price was a mistake, according to the Northern Store. "It was a mistake at the store level to order it in the first place and another mistake by putting the price on the shelf. We should have caught it in Winnipeg," said Jim Deyell, regional public affairs manager for the Northern Store. The orange juice was mistakenly priced according to the cargo rate, not the food mail rate. It was ordered as a part of the regular Pond Inlet shipment, and the shipping costs were added to the item - the routine way the Northern Store handles pricing - putting the orange juice price through the roof. According to Deyell, no one bought the orange juice at the inflated price and it was marked at its regular price, $4.69, the next day. Complaints about the orange juice price reached the Ottawa desk of Fred Hill, who runs the food mail program for the Indian and Northern Affairs. For 80 cents a kilo, eligible products can be shipped to communities that are not connected by a road or rail for a discounted rate. The program only covers healthy foods, anything with sugar added is not eligible. The rate has been at 80 cents a kilo since 1993-94. Prior to that, the rate was at $2.00 a kilo for Nunavut, but was realigned to match with the rest of Canada. Costs more every year It costs more every year to keep the program alive, but Hill sees that as a mark of success. "There are more communities using the program every year," said Hill. Deyell and his counterparts from other Nunavut retailers have joined forces to lobby the government to increase the food mail subsidy. "We want to change their highly perishable products. We are looking for 30 cents a kilo instead of the current 80 cents a kilo. Two litres of milk weighs five pounds, that would carve a dollar or $1.25 off the price," said Deyell. Deyell and the Northern Store are joined by the Arctic Co-ops and the federated co-ops of Northern Quebec in their lobbying effort. The group travelled to Ottawa and presented every MP they could find with an apple, to remind them of the subsidy. "The pilot project worked in Kugaaruk, there was an increase in perishable food items being purchased," said Deyell. "The purpose of the pilot project was to see if it had an impact on prices and consumption, and it has. Now, we are analyzing the evidence, but the schedule is up to the minister," said Hill. The pilot project in Kugaaruk only covers "priority perishables", which are, "the foods that people in the North aren't eating," said Hill.
Cost of staple items in Nunavut communities
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