Question Period Note: Nutrition North Canada

N.A.

• The Government of Canada recognizes how critical federal support for food security is to people living in the Arctic and the North, including Indigenous peoples.

• In recent years, Nutrition North has expanded to include support for harvesters, community food programs and food security research.

• More needs to be done. The affordability crisis faced by all Canadians is more extreme in Northern and isolated communities and I am committed to taking concrete action.

• Crown – Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC) is working directly with a Special Representative, Aluki Kotierk, to advance reform that will prioritize community-led solutions and Indigenous food sovereignty.

Isolated northern communities—where most residents are Indigenous (First Nations 48.3%, Inuit 40.4%, Métis 1.8%)—experience some of the highest food insecurity rates in the developed world. This is a complicated, multijurisdictional issue, directly linked to poverty and exacerbated by isolation.

While rising costs are a reality across Canada, affordability challenges are 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 Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in all three territories and six provinces.

If pressed on program effectiveness
• 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.

• This 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, Special Representative, will provide recommendations in 2026. If pressed on Budget 2025 Investment
• Through Budget 2025, Northern and Arctic Affairs has secured an additional investment of $X million for the Nutrition North Canada subsidy program for 2026-27

• This funding will uphold the program’s ability to address food insecurity in northern, remote communities by maintaining current subsidy rates, and support non-profits and local producers who are growing strong, northern food economies.