Health Jul 14, 2026 – 12:00 pm EDT
Kotierk calls for Nutrition North to subsidize ‘all items’
Government to consider recommendation along with other feedback from Indigenous partners and northerners, spokesperson says
An external review of the Nutrition North program led by former Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. president Aluki Kotierk calls for the federal government to subsidize “all items” instead of just nutritional food it has traditionally covered. It’s a recommendation the government is considering along with other feedback it has received as part of a review of the subsidy program. (File photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Aluki Kotierk, the federal government’s handpicked adviser on reforming Nutrition North, says “all items” should be subsidized to put grocery prices in northern communities on par with the south
This recommendation is one of more than a dozen conclusions included in her external review, which was published on the government’s website June 26
“I am of the view that all items in Nutrition North Canada-eligible communities should be subsidized,” Kotierk wrote in her submission to the minister of Arctic and northern affairs
Kotierk was appointed in February 2025 to do an external review of Nutrition North following allegations that northern retailers were not passing Nutrition North subsidies to consumers
“We need to do our due diligence in making sure that every single penny of the retail subsidy is going to northerners,” then-northern affairs minister Dan Vandal told Nunatsiaq News in October 2024
Kotierk’s submission acknowledges these allegations but suggests inflation might also be driving up costs. She instead focuses on problems she sees with the way the federal government handles Nutrition North subsidies
“Why is a prepared salad bag not subsidized when all the components of the salad bag are subsidized,” she said in her submission
“I have tried to think deeply and in different approaches to understand why pasta shaped in a certain way is subsidized when nutritionally equivalent pasta in a different shape is not subsidized? It makes no sense to me and I suspect that it would not make sense to a Canadian living in Vancouver or Regina or Halifax.”
The submission does not include an estimate of how much expanding subsidies would cost the program that spent $163 million in the 2025-26 fiscal year subsidizing nutritional food in 124 northern communities, including those in Nunavut and Nunavik
Kotierk said she anticipates the government will raise this concern but she believes people who live in remote communities “should be able to expect a standard of living and accessibility that is on par with other Canadians.”
Nunatsiaq News asked Northern Affairs Minister Rebecca Chartrand’s office about the idea that the government should subsidize foods that are not considered nutritional — soda pop and potato chips, for example
“The government is considering that recommendation alongside the full body of feedback received from Indigenous partners and northerners,” Chartrand’s press secretary Erika Lashbrook Knutson said in an email Monday
Kotierk could not be reached for comment about her report for this story
In other recommendations, Kotierk suggested parliamentarians should require an evaluation and monitoring of food insecurity at regular intervals — such as every three years
Systemic issues require a systemic approach, said Georgina Loyd, assistant deputy minister of Northern Affairs for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada in an interview Friday
“This [submission] is one piece of input as part of the reform,” Lloyd said, adding the government has also collected feedback on Nutrition North through an internal government evaluation, research grants and a food sovereignty summit in Ottawa in March
The government’s next step is to review all that information to formulate a strategy for reforming Nutrition North, Lloyd said
Part of Kotierk’s job was to consult with national and regional Indigenous organizations and relevant federal organizations. But her submission doesn’t mention whom Kotierk consulted
Nunavut MP Lori Idlout wonders who she spoke to
“Did she meet with companies? Did she meet with bureaucrats? I found that information lacking in the report,” Idlout said in an interview Friday
“I think it would have been good to see if she met with others to help with her analysis.”
