Rising cost of food in the North a big problem

By LIBERAL MP YVONNE JONES |

Published: Monday, 01/27/2014 12:00 am EST

The federal government has a mandate through the Nutrition North Program to provide subsidies to northern communities, but food prices are still rising sharply year over year.

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I have been blessed with the good fortune of being born and raised in Northern Canada. Labrador has always been my home, and it truly is a special place.

Over the years, in my travels throughout the territories and other northern regions, I witnessed the strength and resilience of the people who work hard every day to provide for their families, their communities, and their fellow citizens.

Canadians everywhere have started to pay more attention recently to the issues of the North, especially with increased resource-development and the opening up of Arctic shipping channels. While we are all very excited to see this economic boom take place, and the benefits it will provide to residents and local governments, the current federal government has failed to meet the growing needs of our northern communities.

One of the biggest issues we face in the North is the food crisis. This issue has many aspects, from the rising price of food, to the lack of nutritious food, and the general level of food insecurity in the North.

Much of the attention has focused on how much the average family in Northern Canada pays for their food bill as compared to the rest of Canada. Many people in the South are shocked to see grocery store prices that are often more than double what the average Canadian family pays, but this comes as no surprise to those of us who face this reality on a daily basis.

The lack of affordable and nutritious food in the North can only be described as one thing: a major crisis. Children are growing up without the vitamins and nutrients that they need to stay healthy. Families are being forced to forego healthy food for the only food they can afford. The federal government has a mandate through the Nutrition North Program (formerly known as the Food Mail Program) to provide subsidies to northern communities so that they may have more affordable nutritious and fresh food available. Unfortunately, I hear again and again from people in my own riding, and across northern Canada, about how food prices are still rising sharply year over year. Northern residents are paying more than ever for the kinds of food that Nutrition North is supposed to subsidize.

It is sad to see these proud Canadians, who work hard to preserve our North, protect our borders and sovereignty, and develop our natural resources, getting the cold shoulder from the Harper government. Each summer, Prime Minister Stephen Harper does a quick trip through a part of the North to announce some infrastructure projects and tell Canadians how much he purports to care about our North. While these announcements are made with much hype and fanfare, they are little more than empty promises. Indeed, many of his northern projects and promises are quietly shelved afterwards.

His government also fails to address social concerns such the lack of proper housing, and the food crisis that forces families to make difficult decisions every day.

A recent study on food insecurity in Canada highlighted the fact that almost 60 per cent of children in Nunavut are living in food-insecure households. The lack of access to affordable and nutritious foods to maintain a healthy lifestyle is worrisome, but in the face of these types of statistics and evidence, we have heard nothing from the government in terms of concrete action. What will it take for this government to finally act on this issue?

When almost 60 per cent of the children in part of this country are growing up malnourished and going to bed hungry, it frustrates and saddens me to be given non-answers whenever I try and speak up or ask questions for those that need a voice in Ottawa. The Harper government has found many ways to waste public money in recent years, from its expensive and partisan advertising, to the G8 spending fiasco, to Cabinet ministers’ gold-embossed business cards. It is therefore hard to swallow financial excuses for the lack of proper support for Nutrition North, and the program’s failure to control escalating food prices in northern communities.

If Harper is truly committed to fostering, in the words of our national anthem, “a true North strong and free,” a modest and prudent investment in an existing federal program can have a more profound and lasting impact than all of his summer Arctic photo-ops ever will.

Liberal MP Yvonne Jones, who represents Labrador, is her party’s official critic for Northern Development and the Arctic Council.