Question Period Note: Nutrition North Canada

• Nutrition North Canada helps make perishable and nutritious foods more affordable and accessible to residents of isolated northern communities that lack year-round road, rail or marine access.
• Budget 2021 proposes an investment of $163.4 million over three years to expand the Nutrition North Program in collaboration with Indigenous partners to address food insecurity in the North.
• In April 2020, the Government invested $25 million in Nutrition North Canada to increase subsidy rates. The list of eligible items was also expanded to include personal hygiene and cleaning products.
• Eligible communities are also benefiting from the program’s Harvesters Support Grant, with $8 million dollars a year to support hunting, harvesting and food sharing activities to increase access to traditional foods.
• In its first year alone, over 5,500 harvesters, over 150 hunts, and over 120 food sharing initiatives were supported by the Harvesters Support Grant.

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If pressed on Food Security in the North
• In Canada’s North, food prices can be significantly higher than what the rest of the country pays. Factors such as isolation and socioeconomic issues make northerners particularly vulnerable to food security challenges.
• Northern Affairs is working closely with other federal departments and Indigenous partners to identify shared, northern-based solutions to improve food security in the North.
• A long-term strategy will require a whole-of-government approach that recognizes and addresses the key factors of income and employment.
• We see Nutrition North Canada as an integral part of a broader and more integrated solution.