Minister says changes to Nutrition North program set to roll out in the fall
Alessia Passafiume
Fri, July 31, 2026 at 2:27 a.m. GMT+5:30
4 min read
OTTAWA — Northern Affairs Minister Rebecca Chartrand says changes to the Nutrition North program are coming this fall, but they won’t be limited to subsidies to reduce the cost of food in the North
Instead, Chartrand said, the federal government is looking at all options to help reduce food insecurity in the region, including strengthening local supply chains and supporting harvesters
Nutrition North provides money to retailers to help bring down the high cost of groceries in 124 communities. Some retailers have been accused of not applying the full subsidy to the items they sell
The federal government says it has been reviewing the program to strengthen the food economy, restructure governance and reform subsidies
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, which represents Inuit in Canada, said earlier this year that Nutrition North isn’t working and should be scrapped
“It’s a scattershot approach in a policy environment that is begging for specific intervention,” ITK president Natan Obed told The Canadian Press
“We want to take back control more of this space and say, ‘If the government of Canada is going to spend a dollar on poverty reduction, on food security, on the well-being of children, that we’d love to do it within these policy parameters and the priorities that we have decided ourselves that we feel will make the best possible difference.'”
Obed said he wants a program exclusively for Inuit households based on co-ops and other locally-owned food retailers. He said such a program would give Inuit greater control over supply chains and food pricing, and expand support for harvesting and community-led food security initiatives
Aluki Kotierk, an Inuk leader from Iqaluit, was selected as a special representative on Nutrition North by Chartrand’s department
Chartrand’s department quietly published Kotierk’s report in late June. In it, she called for a universal basic income and more comprehensive monitoring of food insecurity
She also called for the federal subsidy to be placed on all items to ensure grocery prices in the North are on par with what southerners pay
“Canada needs to be investing in the Arctic in a sustained fashion so that we may lift ourselves out of poverty. Currently there is interest in the Arctic security and sovereignty. This interest needs to be sustained,” she wrote
“This is a Canadian problem. The solution is a nation-building exercise. The modernization of Nutrition North Canada is not only a matter of food security but a nation-building initiative that contributes to reconciliation, economic development and Canadian sovereignty and security.”
