Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement today has to do with the failure of the Food Mail Program in my region.
Mr. Speaker, having enough healthy food to eat is necessary to have healthy people and healthy communities. I’m hearing concerns about a shipment of food to the Sahtu communities, especially Deline. Right now Deline’s groceries are packed in Yellowknife and shipped through the air through Buffalo Airways to the Sahtu. As soon as they arrive, someone goes up to meet the plane and picks them up, but lately somewhere along the line the boxes of fresh products are freezing, sometimes boxes even go missing. No one is taking responsibility for these frozen, fresh products. Mr. Speaker, we are trying to promote healthy diets and healthy living in our small communities. It’s hard when most healthy foods go to waste even before they reach the store of the persons. The price of food keeps going up and we can’t afford to waste any more.
I am pleased that communities are starting to produce foods locally. There’s support available for people who want to harvest on the land, but we can’t expect fresh vegetables and fruit to grow in Deline in February. By the time bananas, grapes, potatoes and blueberries reach Yellowknife, they have already made a long journey. It’s a terrible waste when the order doesn’t get to the people who pay for it and who want it in our small communities.
As a Member, I will monitor this situation, Mr. Speaker. I hope someone will take the responsibility so this situation can be resolved so situations like this can be prevented.
Mr. Speaker, people in Deline have used this Food Mail Program and when the order comes in and the family goes up to the airport to pick it up, the bananas are frozen and the grapes are spoiled. No one is taking responsibility to say who is going to cover the costs. The people are losing out in this situation.
Mr. Speaker, I’ll have questions for this government in regard to helping our people in our small communities.
The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
