NAN Welcomes Auditor General Audit of Nutrition North Canada Program
Posted: August 13, 2013
Categories: GoodFoodBites / News from Sustain Members
From NAN:
THUNDER BAY (August 8, 2013): Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Deputy Grand Chief Goyce Kakegamic welcomes the Auditor General of Canada’s audit of the Nutrition North Canada (NNC) subsidy program, citing the need for restructuring from a profit-driven enterprise to a health-based initiative to improve access to quality food for NAN First Nations.
“The Nutrition North Canada program was designed to improve access to more affordable, nutritious food for remote First Nations, but it is failing miserably with retailers making record profits at the expense and the health of our people,” said NAN Deputy Grand Chief Goyce Kakegamic. “Our own food pricing initiative shows that northern food retailers are making lucrative profits at the expense of First Nations’ health, and we expect the Auditor General’s audit will confirm this.”
Under the previous Food Mail Program, price surveys were conducted by government officials at retailers in remote communities. This was discontinued with the transition in 2011 by the Harper government to the NNC, which now relies on a self-reporting price monitoring system by retailers despite government assurances that price surveys would continue.
The market-based approach of the NNC has resulted in a disturbing trend in product availability. Static, weight-based subsidies for broad categories of food provide incentives for retailers to focus on lowest value items, allowing retailers to inflate profits by abusing government subsidies aimed at improving health.
“Market-based food systems have resulted in extremely high prices in northern and remote First Nations, forcing many people to survive on low-value, processed foods because they lack healthy alternatives or simply can’t afford it,” said Kakegamic. “This program has gone off-course, and is exacerbating the challenges many of our communities face while trying to meet the nutrition requirements of their children and families.”
NAN has offered to assist the Auditor General’s audit of the NNC program with the hope of restructuring it from a profit-based to health-based program.
Nishnawbe Aski Nation is a political territorial organization representing 49 First Nation communities in James Bay Treaty No. 9 and Ontario portions of Treaty No. 5 – an area covering two thirds of the province of Ontario in Canada.
For more information please contact: Amy Harris, Director of Communications – Nishnawbe Aski Nation (807) 625-4906 or cell (807) 252-2806 or by email aharris@nan.on.ca