The founder of a nutrition advocacy website for Canada's North says the federal government is letting her people down with its Nutrition North subsidy program, and Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq should apologize for letting it happen.
"She's supposed to be representing us," Leesee Papatsie told CTV's Canada AM by phone from Iqaluit on Wednesday. "She should be apologizing to us in the North for people going hungry."
Papatsie is the founder of Feeding My Family, a website and Facebook group that aims to draw attention to the exorbitantly high cost of food in Canada's northern communities. The average cost of dietary staples like milk can be two to three times higher in the North than in other parts of Canada.
Papatsie says it's common for people to scavenge for food at landfills because Nutrition North doesn't do enough to bring food prices down and address the dietary needs in the area.
Environment Minister and Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq came under fire this week, after APTN released a documentary on the plight of First Nations people in Canada's northern territories. The documentary showed some people in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut searching for food at the local dump because they couldnāt afford groceries.
Opposition MPs slammed Aglukkaq during question period on Tuesday for reading a newspaper the day before during a debate on the Nutrition North program. NDP and Liberal MPs had been grilling Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt over the effectiveness of Nutrition North.
Nutrition North is part of Valcourt's Aboriginal Affairs portfolio, but Nunavut is Aglukkaq's home riding.
"Will the prime minister tell his minister to put down the newspaper and start doing her job?" Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair said during question period on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper fired back at Mulcair's question, saying there is "no doubt" that Aglukkaq is the strongest representative Nunavut has ever had.
Aglukkaq herself answered every question in the House of Commons on Tuesday, and insisted that the people in her riding are a "top priority."
But Papatsie said she doesn't have any faith in Aglukkaq's words, as Nutrition North continues to fail the people of Nunavut.
The program is meant to subsidize the cost of common dietary staples like fruit, vegetables, meat, cheese and milk, which are costly to import to the Canadian North. However, Papatsie says grocery stores often pocket those subsidies and continue to charge exorbitant prices for their produce.
"The problem is the stores have been gouging the customer for the last 50 to 100 years," she said.
She adds that many of the foods subsidized by Nutrition North are not central to Northerner's diets. Papatsie says most people in Nunavut eat what she calls "country food" ā an assortment of caribou, whale, fish and seal meat.
Liberal Aboriginal Affairs critic Carolyn Bennett said that itās time Aglukkaq ālistened to her peopleā in the constituency.
āThe hunters that used to be able to look after their families also canāt afford the rifles, the ammunition, being able to get their snow machines fixed,ā Bennett said Wednesday on CTVās News Channel. āSheās got to listen to these people ā they are unable to feed their families, their families are hungry and that is new and that is under her watch.ā
A report by the territory government on the in Nunavut found that prices had dropped by about four per cent in 2014, when compared to the previous year.
Photos posted on Papatsie's Feeding My Family Facebook page show food items going for outrageous prices in Nunavut grocery stores. A five-pack of juice boxes is listed at $36.99 in one Aug. 15 photo. Another puts the cost of apple sauce at $17.45 a jar.
