Food Insecurity, Arctic Canada

"Food insecurity is a big problem, and it's not going away with that initiative [government subsidizing northern retailers and southern suppliers]."
"[Food insecurity] rates are rising despite the presence of this big program that is designed to help people afford and access food."
Andree-Anne Fafard St-Germain, Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto

"[An urgent enquiry is required] to determine the extent to which similar initiatives adapted to the needs and realities of northern populations could affect food insecurity".
Paper, Canadian Medical Association Journal

The federal government’s Nutrition North program helps subsidize the cost of certain foods in Nunavut, such as this instant oatmeal in Iqaluit’s Arctic Ventures Marketplace store. A new study, published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, finds that food insecurity actually rose in Nunavut after Nutrition North’s introduction. (Photo by Emma Tranter)

Surveys conducted by Statistics Canada to measure food insecurity, indicate at least one affirmative answer to a series of questions relating to:

• A full day without eating;
• Worrying about running out of food;
• Compromising on food quality or safety.

Ms. St-Germain's new study questions the utility much less touted success of the Canadian government's subsidies whose purpose ostensibly was to ensure that food become more affordable in the country's Arctic regions. Her conclusion is that the subsidies program has failed in its purpose. Coincidentally, a massive increase in food insecurity has arisen in northern communities, according to her research.

So instead of ensuring that access to food at reasonable prices became the outcome of the subsidized food program in a targeted effort to provide greater nutritional security for northern residents, the scheme to subsidize northern retailers and southern suppliers has backfired; creating a much worse situation than the one it was developed to ameliorate. It would seem the middleman is eating the subsidy, not passing it on, as intended, to consumers.

The program, launched in 2011, was a replacement of an earlier subsidy program. Food insecurity has increased over 13 percent across the ten most populous communities in Nunavut where before the current program came into effect, had begun to trend downward. This result and the research damning it reflects a Nutrition North Canada program that appears increasingly deficient in its outcome.

A price tag lists the price and subsidy of a 4 L jug of milk at a grocery store in Iqaluit, Nunavut on December 8, 2014.  Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS

What does appear abundantly clear is that the Nutrition North Canada program has failed to ensure that food was reduced in price and increased in availability; prices remain vastly costly where a pound of ground beef sells for $20 and a 2 kg bag of white flour costs close to $14. Food insecurity annual rates were 33 percent before the launch of the government subsidy; highest in the country, but on a slight downward trajectory.

Once the NNC program came into force, however, that number increased and kept going up, so that by the time the NNC had been implemented to the fullest degree in 2014, rates of food insecurity reached close to 50 percent of households and have stayed that way since. The downward trend reversed and transformed to a major spike.

"[The rate of food insecurity] after implementation was 43 percent higher than the rate expected if the trend before the launch had continued", the paper published in the Canadian Medial Association Journal, prepared by Ms.St-Germain and her team read. In acknowledgement reforms were pledged and an announcement of a five-year, $62-million support of harvesters of country food like caribou and seal and wild plants was made.

"The results are clear -- Nutrition North Canada [NNC] has succeeded in reducing prices of eligible food in isolated norther communities, and in increasing the amount of perishable nutritious food available."  2015 government report

"The Government of Canada recognizes that the Nutrition North Canada program has not been working for Northerners and is modernizing and reforming the program to better address Northerners' needs."  2018 government update

On Sept. 27, 2016, a two-litre carton of orange juice was priced at $12.99. That doesn't count the $1 federal subsidy provided through the Nutrition North program. (Elyse Skura/CBC)

And although government points to different success indices, for example a reported increase in the volume of food shipped, along with a decrease in the price of the Revised Northern Food Basket, such measures may indicate the program has been beneficial to wealthier households who can afford nutritious foods on their own; leaving poorer households with continued food insecurity.

Fafard St-Germain and her report co-authors acknowledged reports that non-perishable food and non-food necessities became more costly following the launch of NNC. Evidence exists from other federal programs, she pointed out, such as child benefits and pension plans that "income-based interventions" to place more money in peoples' pockets rather than reduce retail prices allow them better control on food insecurity.

Men haul sections of whale skin and blubber, known as muktuk, near Barrow, Alaska. In accompanying commentary to the study, a researcher says the data doesn't take into account other sources of food insecurity, such as fewer young people hunting for food. (Gregory Bull/The Associated Press)