Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement today is proposed changes to the Food Mail Program. Currently, when residents of Nunakput go to the grocery store to buy groceries, they are shipped and subsidized by the Food Mail Program. They still could pay up to $10 for a salad or even more for two litres of milk.
Mr. Speaker, given the sufficient amount of spending on the Food Mail Program, this should not be happening. This is not the original vision or intention of the Food Mail Program.
The food mail system has evolved into the largest federal government subsidy program in the North, Mr. Speaker. The current way the food mail is administered, this is less than bizarre. The federal government transfers funds to Canada Post, they contract shippers and subsidy shipping rates are passed on to the consumer. Mr. Speaker, this false hope has made the cost of living in most northern communities a luxury that only the privileged can afford. What they support in the market is a natural approach where the consumer can directly and visibly subsidize a point of sale, thus eliminating the need to have administration carried out by Canada Post.
Mr. Speaker, any revision to the current approach of using Canada Post as an inter-mediator is unacceptable. Any revision that does not allow the consumer, who has a right to be a recipient of the subsidy, to see the subsidy is unacceptable. This current approach does not really help small communities by making healthy living and healthy eating affordable.
I have recently read that the INAC report believes that 62 percent of the subsidy is actually reaching the consumer. The government must commit itself to initiating a revised program to ensure the remaining 38 percent, of which becomes $25 million, actually affects the process in the North.
I am encouraging the government to work with the Members of the Legislative Assembly to work progressively with the Government of Canada so the Food Mail Program works and can be adopted whereby each dollar of the federal government provides northern nutrition.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.
I am encouraging the government to work with the Members of the Legislative Assembly to work progressively with the Government of Canada so the Food Mail Program works and can be adopted whereby each dollar of the federal government provides northern nutrition and results in a dollar reduction to the cost for the northern consumer.
Mr. Speaker, we owe the accountability to our constituents. We owe this to the health of northern consumers. Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the appropriate Minister at the appropriate time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
