SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknifer shopper Corinna Broderick noticed a spike in her grocery bill after returning from a months-long absence from the city - a trend that is backed up by recently released figures.

Justin Nelson, manager of the Yellowknife Co-op, rearranges cauliflower at his store last week. Nelson said he cannot explain why Statistics Canada shows the price of food in Yellowknife is up 6.2 per cent over last year. - John McFadden/NNSL photo

The price of food in Yellowknife has risen by 6.2 per cent since last February, according to the figures released as part of Statistics Canada's monthly consumer price index. Aside from P.E.I., which had an increase of 6.5 per cent, it's the highest increase across the country.

"All I have noticed is the price of meat and chicken has gone up really high. I've noticed a couple of frozen things I get is up by about three dollars," said Broderick, who used to work at a Yellowknife grocery store.

"This was $9.99 when I was here and now it's like $13 something," she said about the price of frozen haddock.

The statistics back up similar figures released last month which show the city had a higher increase in the cost of food since January 2014 than Whitehorse and all 10 provinces. Stats also show food prices in the city have been on a steady increase over the last two years.

But Co-op store manager Justin Nelson says he's absolutely perplexed by the numbers.

"I'm not going to dispute this. I'm sure they have data to prove that. In this store ... to us it's how can that possibly be?" said Nelson. "To me it's kind of interesting that all of a sudden that's a big leap. For us we're definitely not seeing that number as reality," he said referencing the 6.2 per cent increase.

Nelson said profit margins at the store have gone down. He said that the store is now on a national flyer, meaning that the items on it sell for the same amount in Yellowknife as they do in Calgary or Moose Jaw, or Saskatoon or any other western Co-op store that uses the same flyer.

Nelson stopped short of blaming the other stores in town that sell groceries for the increase but pointed out there are several of them.

"You have your two Independent Groceries in town. You have Shoppers (Drug Mart). You have Walmart and you have a number of other stores," Nelson said. "We would not want to be painted with the same brush."

A national spokesperson for Loblaws, the umbrella which the city's two Independent Grocers are under, declined comment.

Ottawa-based Statistics Canada analyst Michel Sekimonyo would not say which or how many stores in Yellowknife were surveyed, adding he could not reveal that information for confidentially reasons. Sekimonyo said Statistics Canada uses the same basket of food to gauge prices in Yellowknife that it does in the rest of the country.

That includes meat, poultry, dairy products, baked goods, as well as fruits and vegetables. Sekimonyo did point to a couple of products that are contributing to the high cost of food in Yellowknife compared to the rest of Canada.

"Bakery products were up 15.6 per cent in Yellowknife since February of 2015 compared to 2.3 per cent nationally," Sekimonyo said "Meat (including fish and poultry) was up 8.4 per cent in Yellowknife compared to 1.6 per cent nationally."

Yellowknife actually bucked the national trend when it came to fresh vegetables. Prices in the city were up 9.5 per cent compared to February a year ago while they rose a whopping 17.2 per cent nationally during that time period, according to Sekimonyo. The prices for fresh fruit, dairy products and coffee rose by about the same amount as the rest of Canada. The roughly 14.5 per cent increase in the price of fresh fruit is attributed to an ongoing drought in California.

Broderick said that she feels helpless about what she can do personally about the high price of food in the city.

"This is it. You have to eat so you have to pay," she said.

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