Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
WHEREAS the creation of the federal Nutrition North Canada Program was announced on May 21, 2010;
AND WHEREAS the Nutrition North Canada Program replaced the Food Mail Program;
AND WHEREAS the Nutrition North Canada Program is administered by the federal Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development;
AND WHEREAS all Members of the Legislative Assembly continue to have significant concerns regarding the success of the Nutrition North Canada Program in ensuring that nutritious food is affordable for all NWT residents;
AND WHEREAS these concerns have also been expressed in the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut and the Yukon Legislative Assembly;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, that the Legislative Assembly calls on the Auditor General of Canada to undertake a comprehensive performance audit of the Nutrition North Canada Program, and to report his office’s findings and recommendations to the Parliament of Canada and the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I bring this motion to the floor and I thank the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre for seconding it. I would ask that this motion be supported by all Members in this House here to look at the Nutritious North Program that was introduced in 2010.
Mr. Speaker, the old Food Mail Program worked well and we had regular users in our communities and retailers using it with the help from Canada Post at that time. The department did a review and now they’ve opted into a new Nutritious North Program. Basically it was taking the subsidies out of the hands of the people in the communities and putting them back into the hands of the retailers.
I ask that this Legislative Assembly supports this motion, through requesting strong recommendations to the Auditor General of Canada to undertake a comprehensive audit. We’ve heard the Nunavut Government has made this motion and passed it with unanimous consent, and also the Yukon Legislative Assembly.
Mr. Speaker, those are my words for this motion.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. I will allow the seconder to speak to the motion. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank Mr. Yakeleya for allowing me to work with him on this particular initiative. I couldn’t agree with him more. The design was to ensure we got healthy food to people in regions that were unable to access healthy foods, perishable foods. The fact is this isn’t being accomplished under the present design and I couldn’t agree with Member Yakeleya any more than we are now.
I want to acknowledge the lead played by the Yukon MLAs and certainly the Nunavut Legislature. Although I can’t speak to who is pushing this issue in the Yukon, I can acknowledge Ron Elliott, MLA in the Nunavut Legislature who has been working hard on this one, pushing and demanding more credibility and integrity in the system.
Mr. Speaker, asking for a performance audit is ensuring that the quality of work is being done, and the fact is I’m unsure that it will prove that in the sense that the facts will prove themselves to show that good food, nutritious food is not being delivered in the proper mode as being requested.
The idea, of course, is we all know very well to subsidize this type of food, whether it’s through the airlines or mail system to get it to the people. The fact is, this is not the case. It’s being left in the hands of those delivering it. The question is: Is that accountability there? I question that at first blush. I’m not an accountant or an auditor, but I think that’s the question that we need to ask today.
This motion drives that focus. Will it be scrutinized with the end result in mind? Scrutinized in the manner of saying are we ensuring that this type of food getting there delivered at the cheapest cost?
There has been many times I’ve heard over the years that people have shipped non-food items under the Food Mail Program. Does that continue to be a problem under Nutritious North? An audit process will raise that question. An audit process will dive into that question. Finally, Mr. Speaker, an audit process will solve that question and ensure that those checks and balances are put in place.
Did a new program help? I actually think it did the reverse. I think it’s drawn away from the results we were shooting for, to ensure fresh and nutritious food was provided to the people in the communities.
Again, I want to thank Member Yakeleya for bringing this issue forward. The very least that can be done here today is this whole Assembly stands up, puts this question to the Auditor General of Canada who has the skills, ability and integrity to tie this together, and ask is this program working as was desired. I can tell you I don’t believe it is, but let’s put it to the right people who can demonstrate that for a fact. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of this motion. My comments are similar to those of my colleagues.
I haven’t been directly involved in the program. I don’t have many constituents who are directly involved in the program, but I am well aware of the deficiencies of the program. It’s been made known particularly through social media, Facebook, the printed and the electronic media and so on.
Since the change came in two years ago, I’ve heard nothing but negative comments about this new program. Those comments have come through social media, Facebook, the printed and the electronic media and so on. Since the change came in two years ago, I’ve heard nothing but negative comments about this new program, and those comments have come from a variety of people. They’ve come from retailers. They’ve come from residents, in particular. They’ve come from previous federal employees, an employee who managed the program, and certainly from MLAs in both of our sister territories in the North, the Yukon and the Nunavut Legislatures.
It seems to me that from everything I’m hearing and everything I’m seeing, that the old system was better, and people do not want to continue with this new system because it’s a reversion to a system that doesn’t work. It escapes me why the federal government made those changes in the first place. I don’t think they did due diligence in their investigation into how a new system would work, and I think they overlooked a number of things that have made the system inoperable.
Our sister territories have discussed this and have passed motions calling for the same thing that we are calling for here today, and I think a united northern voice would carry a much further weight than just two out of three calling in the wind. I would, as Mr. Hawkins said earlier, exhort all of my colleagues to support this motion and show a unanimous voice.
I think an objective evaluation and an objective audit is what is needed, and I think, as has been stated, the office of the Auditor General is the perfect office for that job. They’re well known for their ability to be objective and to look at things with a practiced eye, to look at things with a very objective eye, and to make recommendations which make programs better, and we’ve seen that in this Assembly with the reports that the Office of the Auditor General has done, on behalf of this Legislature, for various departments.
I think they can compare the previous program with the new program and see where the failings are, and can make recommendations for the system which would work to the benefit of our residents instead of to the detriment of our residents, which is what I think this current program does. Again, I urge all Members to support this motion, as I will.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion. Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, rise here today to support the motion brought forward by the honourable Mr. Yakeleya, and the seconder, Mr. Hawkins. I do appreciate all the work that’s gone into providing the information here today.
It goes without saying, too, there are a lot of champions behind the scenes, not only in this government but governments across the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, as well as the Yukon, and none more other than my fellow Twitter follower – and I follow him, as well – the honourable Mr. Ron Elliott in Nunavut. He’s been a strong champion of that in the Nunavut Legislature.
Really, in essence, how do you measure the success or failure of a program, any program for that matter? And I’ll tell you, the answer is quite simple: The people will tell you. This particular initiative has been definitely brought forward very heavily, as Member Bisaro indicated, in the social media and Facebook. This has been a heavy, heavy Twitter following in terms of concern. I think the people have spoken loud and clear. We need to ask ourselves, did this new Nutrition North Program improve access to healthy foods. Again, I believe the people have spoken, and I believe it’s important that at this time we listen and heed to their wishes, and I think this motion does declare that wish.
For intents and purposes, many believe the intent was there. Yet, the better question we should be asking is: Do we meet the demands of providing healthy eating choices for the health and well-being of the people of the North? Again, I believe that answer is put into question today.
In 2012 a joint report coming from the Canadian Circumpolar Institute with the University of Alberta and the University of Oulu, Finland, identified clearly many indigenous peoples in the North have replaced their traditional food with, “a largely western diet that is partially responsible for the increase and the prevalence of chronic health problems such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.”
The motion today speaks well beyond the walls of the simple intake of carbohydrates, protein and sugar. It speaks to the problems we as a society have imposed on to our northern cultures in terms of health and well-being. It’s time that we need to mop up the shortcomings of this Nutrition North Program, and this motion provides the viable options that will make our health care costs more sustainable in this part of Canada. For those reasons alone, I will be in support of this motion.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. To the motion. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Nutritious food into the communities is very important to the government, and diet and exercise. A good diet and exercise are essential for the health care system. Affordable, nutritious foods going into the communities that otherwise cannot get nutritious food at an affordable rate is essential, and the government considers this to be a good motion and we’ll vote in support. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. I’ll allow the motion mover, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues. The motion speaks specifically to the Auditor General. The Auditor General of Canada has the authority to obtain and review all documents and information necessary for its preparation for this report, should it be accepted by them. More importantly, this report will provide proper recommendations that will be fair, accurate, and give Northerners the confidence that this audit will be just and that they know where the money is going.
This audit will show us where the subsidies are being followed. If you go to the Northern Store or the Co-op, you would follow your money and this is what the audit will do. It’s following the money. Who gets it, who spends it and where does it go, and that’s what the audit is calling for.
I have letters from the residents of the Sahtu in regard to the Nutrition North Program versus the old Food Mail Program. One of the disappointing issues of this program is that people in Yellowknife now, because they were serving the people in my region through the Co-op or the Extra Foods or other stores, no longer can participate in this program. It’s just bureaucratic red tape and people in the Sahtu are frustrated because they can’t get their foods any cheaper now, except going into one store. It’s forced them into one store: the Northern Store.
Even the former public service says the federal government is trying to make the Nutrition North Program look like it’s working better than choosing unrepresentative baseline prices. So even an old federal government bureaucrat is saying something is wrong with this program.
We’ve got the Nunavut government, now our Government of the Northwest Territories and the Yukon government telling the program that something is wrong. I think that is a strong signal saying that there is something wrong with the program. It’s like telling a monkey it has three tails. One government tells it, it doesn’t pay attention, but if three governments are telling this monkey it has three tails, then it might look and say yes. So that’s what this motion is saying.
