Nutrition North: Avoiding Negative Effects

The Bloc Québécois would first like to thank everyone directly or indirectly affected by the changes to the Food Mail program who testified before the Committee with respect to the study on Nutrition North Canada (NNC). Although the Bloc Québécois strongly supports the goal of this new program, which is to ensure that healthy foods are more accessible to isolated, northern communities, it believes that the program’s hasty implementation will have a devastating impact on the communities concerned.

The Bloc Québécois deplores the attitude of the Conservative government, which, true to form, recklessly forged ahead on its own with the NNC’s implementation without any meaningful consultation with the communities concerned. This was made abundantly clear when the witnesses appearing before the Committee lacked the information they needed to fully answer questions, being repeatedly told to refer to the website of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, which, in fact, was of no more help, and with reason complained about the government’s lack of communication on this matter.

By implementing phase 1 of the NNC on October 3, 2010, just five months after officially announcing the program, the Conservatives clearly wanted to avoid any debate on the matter. Even though the Bloc Québécois had tabled a motion back in the spring to study the program in committee, the Conservatives had the perfect excuse to refuse substantial changes to the NNC: it was too late. The wheels were in motion and there was no turning back. The government presented parliamentarians with a done deal, preventing the Committee from making timely, essential recommendations to correct several problems that quickly came to light during its study of the program.

Throughout the study, the Bloc Québécois advocated on behalf of the communities that are affected by the new program and that, like the Kativik Regional Government, are calling for the postponement of the NNC so that stakeholders have at least time to adjust. Three times the Bloc Québécois has tabled a motion and recommendations calling for a moratorium or postponement of the program. And three times these legitimate demands have been rebuffed, resulting in serious impacts on the health of northern communities and leaving the program’s implementation wide open, which up to now has been seriously flawed, in conflict with its stated goal.

Questionable effectiveness

A key objective of the new program is to “let market forces establish a balance within a reasonable time frame.” From now on, it will be retailers who see to transportation and purchasing terms and conditions and who, according to the government, will be able to negotiate the best possible prices with carriers.

Contrary to the opinion put forward by the Minister of Indian Affairs and the Minister of Health, it is highly unlikely that individually negotiated transportation rates among carriers for various volumes, according to variable distances and conditions, would be lower than those collectively agreed to with Canada Post. Moreover, this new system lays consumers in these communities open to volatile transportation costs because of fluctuating fuel costs.

It has been shown that air freight rates prior to negotiation could increase the cost of subsidized foods by up to 400% on average in certain isolated communities for basic, nutritious foods. Moreover, unless the government follows the Committee’s recommendations, retailers will have to cover the construction, maintenance, heating, lighting and refrigeration costs of warehouses in each community to store massive inventories for 9 to 10 months, costs that will undoubtedly be passed on to consumers.

Furthermore, smaller retailers under the Food Mail program remain completely insignificant and worry they may have to close their doors. Smaller retailers will have to compete with the country’s major retailers in a competitive process that has already been fiddled with by the government. In these circumstances, how can it be argued that the NNC provides real bargaining power?

Lack of communication

A general consensus emerged from the testimony of Inuit and Aboriginal community representatives: they deplore the lack of communication between the government and the northern communities who were not given time to adjust to the changes and they want to be consulted so that they can participate in an intelligent manner in the development of the new program and adjust to it.

The federal government states it held over 70 meetings in 15 northern communities in 2009 to hear from various stakeholders. However, the government does not state that, first, it met primarily with retailers using the Food Mail program—not representatives from the communities using it—and, second, the meetings were more of a routine review than a consultation to hear views on how best to improve the program so that it was more accessible to isolated communities.

In the end, only the government and major retailers, who necessarily benefit from the new program, agreed that the NNC would be more effective. The other stakeholders can only assume and cross their fingers that the program will be better based on the so-called expertise of the government in this area, a government, let’s not forget, that puts industry above all else, for example by lowering corporate taxes, while slashing funding to community organizations for purely ideological reasons.

Putting the health of communities at risk

By forging ahead so quickly, the Conservative government is ignoring the impact of its new program on the health of northerners. Various newspapers have already drawn attention to the critical state of northern communities, which were hit by a food crisis with the introduction of the NNC.

The price of personal hygiene products and foods that are no longer subsidized under the new program has made the cost of a basket of groceries skyrocket. With 75% of food items now excluded from the list of subsidized products, the increased cost of these products coupled with staggering transportation costs threatens the lives of northerners who are unable to adequately feed themselves.

One of the key problems is that retailers in the North need time to plan, order additional inventory and finance increased warehouse capacity. That is why the Bloc Québécois acted on the repeated demands of northern communities and the Kativik Regional Government in Quebec, which adopted a resolution demanding the postponement of the NNC to give it time to assess the socioeconomic impacts of the new program on its community.

Despite all this, the Conservative government and the opposition parties ignored these concerns and blindly accepted the government’s excuse that it was too late to go back, meekly agreeing to benefit industry at the expense of the health of northern communities.

The Bloc Québécois recommends:

That the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development postpone the existing and future changes to the Food Mail program and the Nutrition North Canada program until a full review of the socioeconomic impacts of these changes on the communities concerned can be conducted.

OR

That the Department introduce the Nutrition North Canada program as a pilot project in Nunavut, specifically in a few communities, and maintain the Food Mail program (with the food list amended as of October 3, 2010) in the other communities concerned for two years. At the end of two years, perform a cost comparison of the two programs to determine the one that is best suited to the needs of northerners and the associated costs.