Research suggests Nutrition North fails to meet northern needs

University of Toronto researcher Tracey Galloway didn’t mince words when asked for her opinion concerning Canada’s Nutrition North program.

“It’s not effective,” she said.

Established by the former Conservative government in 2011 to replace the Foodmail program, Nutrition North Canada (NNC) is a government subsidy for retailers, mandated to improve access to “perishable nutritious food” in isolated communities. According to Galloway’s in-depth study of the new program, it is difficult to judge whether the program has met this goal, and may in fact have done the opposite.

The subsidy level per product varies across eligible communities is based on geographic location and population. Under Nutrition North, however, the subsidy goes to retailers, not to the consumer.

Under the Foodmail program, anyone who shipped food up north could do so at the Canada Post rate, Galloway noted. “Now it’s a retail subsidy. The money goes to the grocery stores and they negotiate their own freight rates which are not disclosed to the public.”

Galloway, an Anthropology professor at the U of T, was recently in Iqaluit to present her research findings, around the same time as Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada completed its national tour of NNC subsidized communities. Based both on the numbers and her firsthand experience, she believes the program needs a serious overhaul.

“The data shows very high prices in remote communities for subsidized items, at least twice as high as comparable benchmarks in southern regions of Canada,” she told the Nation.

Meanwhile, items such as diapers and baby-care products, personal and feminine hygiene products, household cleaning products, harvesting equipment and craft supplies – which all used to be covered by Foodmail – are no longer eligible for subsidy.

“When I travel to these communities I see people suffering severe financial hardship, struggling to afford basic necessities, things that are only available to them at one or two stores in their communities. Some communities only have one store. The average number of stores in northern communities is two, and that includes big cities like Iqaluit,” said Galloway.

It’s not just the NNC program that has issues. The government’s measures to determine whether or not NNC is successful also fall short of the mark.  

“They look at two criteria to determine success” she said. “The weight of food shipped up north and the cost of food in the communities. The weight of food shipped north did increase in the first year but we’re measuring the increase against the backdrop of no subsidy for the two years prior to that.

“Retailers are paid for every kilo they ship to subsidized communities,” she continued. “They aren’t paid to sell the food at an affordable rate. It’s kind of a hollow measure. It tells us that they ship food but not that it’s consistently available, of a certain quality or available at an affordable price.”

Galloway emphasized the gravity of the program’s shortcomings.

“It’s a matter of life and death,” she said. “People are suffering ill health because they can’t afford regular access to healthy food. Our subsidy is meant to guarantee that. Right now it’s failing to provide the essentials of life to these communities.”

There is also an impact on mental health, she added. “All this financial hardship creates feelings of frustration and failure in these people who can’t provide for their families given their financial means.”

 

Asked what needs to be done to improve the NNC program, Galloway had a number of specific suggestions for the federal government, including price caps, more stringent regulations and additions to the list of eligible products.

“I would like to see price ceilings on perishable food items, and I would like to see them tied to southern benchmarks,” she said. “I’d like to see a strict regulatory framework within the subsidy to ensure that perishable food is reliably available and of sufficient quality.”

Galloway also noted that third-party quality inspections were a regular part of the Foodmail program whereas Nutrition North leaves quality control up to the retailers.

“We need some accountability around reliable access and quality of food,” she concluded. “And I’d like to see an expansion of the eligibility list so that items previously subsidized under Foodmail could be subsidized under Nutrition North.”

Galloway’s full research and recommendations to address high costs and limited access to nutritious food in northern Canada will be published in the coming weeks.