Nutrition North has been in the hot seat the past few weeks, and now the NDP are doing something about it. They have presented a motion to make some changes to the program, which comes on the heels of their Respect the North campaign. A New Democrat sparked Auditor General report showed that Nutrition North didn’t have a lot of impact when it comes to food costs, and lacked transparency and accountability.
The motion asks for:
– Immediately including in the Nutrition North Canada program the 50 isolated Northern communities accessible only by air that are not currently eligible for the full subsidy
– Initiating a comprehensive review of the Nutrition North program, with Northerners as full partners, to determine ways of directly providing the subsidy to Northern residents and to improve supports for traditional foods
– Creating equitable program-eligibility criteria for Northern communities based on their real circumstances
– Providing sufficient funding to meet the needs of all Northern communities
– Working with all Northerners to develop a sustainable solution to food insecurity