Question Period Note: Nutrition North Canada

Back to search

About

Reference number:
NA-2025-QP-2858
Date received:
May 23, 2025
Organization:
Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada
Name of Minister:
Chartrand, Rebecca (Hon.)
Title of Minister:
Minister of Northern and Arctic Affairs

Issue/Question:

N/A

Suggested Response:

• Nutrition North has played an important role in reducing food costs in Canada’s north, and has been expanded from a retail subsidy to supporting harvesters, growers, and food banks.
• The affordability crisis faced by all Canadians has been even more extreme in Northern and isolated communities. Nutrition North is no longer able to meet the needs of northerners.
• We have committed to taking concrete action. A Minister’s Special Representative has been appointed and is consulting with Indigenous partners and will present recommendations to reform the Nutrition North Canada program so that it meets the needs of northerners for today and tomorrow.

Background:

• There is a high prevalence of food insecurity in the North, particularly for Indigenous populations. This is a complicated, multijurisdictional issue, directly linked to poverty and exacerbated by isolation.
• While rising costs are a reality across Canada, it is particularly acute in Canada’s North, where food and essential items must be transported long distances through complex food distribution systems and costly transportation.
• Reliance on air and surface transport, limited food retailer competition, inadequate storage, and climate change events all drive up prices and reduce access to affordable food, impacting health and the economy in Northern, isolated communities.
• Nutrition North Canada (NNC) provides food security programming in 124 Inuit, First Nations and non-Indigenous communities in all three territories and six provinces.

Additional Information:

• Indigenous partners are expressing a need for food sovereignty, less dependence on southern markets, and developing self-determined, resilient food systems that reflect the unique realities of the North.
• Feedback is key to the program's continued evolution.
• Nutrition North Canada is informed by its Advisory Board, Indigenous Working Group, and the Inuit-Crown Food Security Working Group.
•Aluki Kotierk, the Minister’s Special Representative, will provide recommendations in 2026.