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People seeing no benefit from Nutrition North, say MLAs Darrell Greer Northern News Services Published Wednesday, November 2, 2011
The program came under heavy fire this past week during a session of the legislative assembly in Iqaluit attended by director general of devolution and territorial relations with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada Stephen Van Dine. Rankin Inlet South-Whale Cove MLA Lorne Kusugak said his constituents say they don't see any benefit to the new program. He said a few good suggestions were made during the session, including a call for a subsidy applied directly to consumers like under the old food mail program. "Under the old program, you ordered food from a southern retailer and the 80 cents a kilo for freight, or whatever it was, was added right away without complicated forms having to be completed by anyone," said Kusugak. "Nutrition North is set up so our mega-stores (Co-op and Northern) get the lion's share of the benefits." Kusugak said the new program has targeted individual ordering from day one. He said it discourages people from being able to shop for food from the south to fill their stomachs, and pretty much makes them shop at the Northern store or Co-op. "By forcing people to shop at the mega-stores, not only can they not afford nutritious food anymore, they can barely afford any kind of groceries to feed their families. "Money went a lot further under the old program and that's been taken away." Kusugak said it's nice for those pushing the new program to be able to say it's all about nutritious food, but Nunavummiut benefitted more from the old food mail. He said those pushing Nutrition North are forgetting the basics of life in Nunavut. "People will have tea and bannock for lunch with a bit of Swiss cheese or a slice of bologna on it. "That's the reality of a lot of dinner tables here, with little variance in many homes between lunch and supper. "Nutrition North doesn't subsidize tea and bannock, so people pay top dollar for that and still can't buy apples, oranges, salads and whatever else it's supposed to let them afford because they're not staples of their diet." Kusugak said the federal government can say it's not subsidizing non-nutritious items, but, when it gives two retailers the power to negotiate one low rate on all freight, that's exactly what it's doing. "The air carriers aren't charging more to ship pop than fruits and vegetables because they're healthier. "They negotiate a flat rate for all these things, so the new program is subsidizing everything they're selling. "It's just not right and, at the end of the day, it affects everybody." Arviat MLA Daniel Shewchuk said there's been no benefit from Nutrition North on store shelves in Arviat. He said it's all mass confusion on how the program works and how it's supposed to benefit anyone. "The average Nunavut citizen can't access this program because they don't understand it and they don't have the means to do it," said Shewchuk. "Nobody else can get anywhere near the rate these bigger retailers are getting, so it's simply not a practical program. "Another big point is access to nutritious country food, which is so important. "We have the means to help each other with the trade of country food between communities and I don't see Nutrition North helping that cause at all." Shewchuk said Nunavummiut need to be consulted on what qualifies for the Nutrition North subsidy list, which needs to be expanded to simply meet the basic necessities of life. He said there's no benefit to lowering prices on a restricted list of goods, if the cost of all other necessities is so high families still can't afford the nutritious items. "What really worries me about this program is how retailers can take advantage of the cheaper freight rates and nobody knows, in reality, what they're doing. "Are they passing on the lower prices of items on the subsidized list, but setting other products not on the list at a higher price? "It's a double-dip if they're saving on one end and profiting more on the other." Shewchuk said Nunavut needs its smaller retail businesses for community prosperity and employment. He said many of them are going to struggle if changes aren't made to Nutrition North. "They can probably survive, but they're going to have difficulty with any expansions they may want to do and even more with providing economic benefits to communities through more employment and everything that goes with it. "Why was this program put in place so fast without proper consultations being done? "If they'd done their homework and actually listened to the people before the program was implemented, these concerns would have addressed."
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