Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Dec. 8th, 2020

[Eric Melillo, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to pose this question to each of our three witnesses, and I thank them for being here with us today.

A lot of what we've heard today, and of course what we know, is that food security is a very complex issue. Many aspects have to go into it, including transportation and infrastructure. Of course, in the north we have many infrastructure gaps and transportation difficulties, and I truly believe that the government can and should do much more to help fill some of those gaps.

Perhaps following the lead of my colleague Mr. Viersen, I'll start in the west with the Yukon, and we can work our way east from there. I'd like to have comments from each of our witnesses on how those transportation/infrastructure difficulties play a role in the prevalence of food insecurity and what the federal government can do to help address that.

[Ranj Pillai]

Thank you.

Speaking about our current situation, I think one of the concerns we have at this particular time is what will happen to regional airlines. We know the pressure that we're in across the country. We know that we have a couple of major airlines that support travel internationally and across this country, but probably most of us online here would have a regional airline that plays an important role.

For us, we know that the bigger airlines—a WestJet or an Air Canada—are not going to fly to Dawson City or Old Crow every two days to fill the need that our regional airlines address. I would just say that it's very important for us to continue to support these folks across the country, and I'm sure it would be the same in NWT, Quebec, Labrador and Nunavut—you name it.

When it comes to our road access, we have about 5,000 kilometres of all-season roads, and of course for those in line, you can imagine that if it's not being shipped to or flown into Alaska, it's coming through Whitehorse. For a long time, the Alaska Highway has been a major artery to connect our continent and our countries, and I think from that perspective there's good infrastructure in place.

It costs a lot to maintain those roads. We've had an agreement with the United States for a number of years, but that has come to an end, and that's what really maintains the Alaska Highway. There was a transfer that was put in place from the U.S. to Canada to do that work. Inevitably it in landed in the financial framework of the Yukon government, and we would deploy that. I think getting that support back in place is going to be key, because that highway has always been our central artery.

I think the third thing would be that if we think about innovation and how we move forward, and if we look at the conversation we're having across the country, we are really going to need to figure out how we can expedite the process for long-haul trucking to pivot towards different fuel sources. Our number one form of emissions is heating, and our second is transportation. For us, that's really the sweet spot to look at if we want to reduce emissions. We just rolled out a new climate change plan for the next 10 years, and we're going to have to figure this out.

I would say that if there's any way we can help, it's going to be about how we can make sure that for all those trucks coming out of Alberta—basically, our product is coming out of Edmonton—those business owners can make the decision to use a different type of innovative machine to get something up the highway, and also about how they are going to be able to make those decisions, because there are extraordinary capital costs on the front end of making those decisions.

That's what we need to be able to do if we're going to change a bit of how we do this in a healthier way, because inevitably it's going to take us a while to be achieve the growth we want, and we are still going to be purchasing from across the country and the United States, as we do now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

You have about a minute left, Mr. Melillo.

[Eric Melillo, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

I'd like to take the opportunity for the other witnesses to comment on that within the limited time available.

[Tracy St. Denis]

I want to echo Minister Pillai's comments about supporting our regional airlines.

We are obviously very jealous of the Yukon road systems. The majority of our communities are fly-in, so regional airlines would actually be a critical continued support for us.

As well, on the impacts of climate change, we have a climate change strategy as well, and are keeping an eye on that, as there will obviously be continued impacts on our limited road systems.

I just wanted to flag this point. I mentioned the anti-poverty coalition meeting next month. Really, for us, it's about understanding what our indigenous governments are seeing as priorities for food security moving forward. I look forward to sharing that information with our federal colleagues so that we can work together.

Thank you.

[Lindsay Turner]

Nunavut has 25 fly-in communities, so a lot of the discussion is around airport infrastructure—a lot of the runways are gravel runways or short runways—as well as building small craft harbours or deep sea ports.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thanks to all of you.

Yvonne Jones, it's your round now, for five minutes. Go ahead.

[Yvonne Jones, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank the panellists this morning. Ms. Turner, Ms. St. Denis, Minister Pillai, it's really good to see you all on the line and hear your presentations this morning.

There are so many questions I could ask, but I know we have limited time. Obviously, we've seen some transformational changes around Nutrition North Canada and food security over the last few years, in terms of increased federal supports, whether it's in agri-food investments, emergency food funds, increases to the Nutrition North subsidy and so on, as well as expanding the program and the number of communities.

One debate continues. I'd like to get your view on this. Right now, Nutrition North Canada really provides a subsidy to wholesale companies. There's always an argument around whether that should be going to the wholesalers or to the airlines. I'd like to get your feedback on that.

The other question I have is for Ms. Turner. I'll throw it out there, and hopefully there's enough time.

Nunavummiut are impacted much more than other populations when it comes to food insecurity in Canada. In the last survey, it showed 57%. Are there culturally respective programs that you see that could be launched in Nunavut to help us alleviate some of the difficulty that families are having, which are probably not being done right now?

I'll leave my questions right there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Lindsay, do you want to start with that? Then we'll go to the subsidy question. Go ahead.

[Lindsay Turner]

Investments in harvester support programs are key. Two other areas would be, more specifically, young hunter mentorship programs and the capacity building of the not-for-profit sector, such as funding for each community to have a space to run community food programs and to hire staff to run them consistently.

In terms of the Nutrition North program, there remains a lack of trust in Nunavut around the transparency of the program. It's difficult to say whether shifting the subsidy to the airlines would change that. There's definitely an interest in seeing.... Some changes have been welcomed. The harvesters support program and some of these hyper-subsidies have made a difference, but other program changes are still being called for, such as more transparency, changing the focus to the food being consumed rather than the food being shipped, and looking at the program objectives. The program objectives should be food security rather than the shipping of food.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Tracy, do you want to comment on the subsidy?

[Tracy St. Denis]

I wanted to mention that there's been a lot of investment in growing food. We've seen some success, even in our high Arctic communities, in growing root vegetables. I think the big challenge for us moving forward is storage and those storage options. Some of them were alluded to earlier. That's going to be a priority for us.

Around Nutrition North, we have great partnerships with AAFC, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, to grow food. We have local producers who are growing. Unfortunately, at the same time they're competing with the subsidized food that's coming in through Nutrition North. That's something we're going to continue some dialogues on. Part of that is doing some of our own homework around the development of a food security plan.

It really is about creating opportunities, having less imported food coming into our territories and developing our commercial operators.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Mr. Pillai, would you comment on the subsidy question?

[Ranj Pillai]

Thank you.

I think we're happy to see the focus on the improvements. For us, again, it becomes Old Crow, which is essentially Canada's most northwestern community. I think there's some room to move.

I would have to take a better look, MP Jones, to really see what would happen with that subsidy switch moving over to the private sector. I don't think I'm prepared to give you an analysis on that today. Overall, I think it's important to just keep working with the communities and to understand that this is a real impediment for them to be able to access food, especially in these fly-in communities.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thanks very much. That brings us within eight seconds, so thanks for the responses.

Now, for two and a half minutes, we have Madame Bérubé. Please go ahead.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My question is for Mrs. Turner.

Mrs. Turner, the nutrition north Canada program was evaluated last year, and food insecurity has gotten worse in Nunavut communities since the program was implemented. The study also raises serious concerns about the fact that the federal government continues to use food subsidies to improve access to food in the north.

How can the rising rates of food insecurity in Nunavut be explained after the nutrition north Canada program was implemented?

[Lindsay Turner]

Thank you for your question.

The issue lies in the program's objective, which is to reduce the price of food. When that is combined with the high level of poverty, even though prices are reduced, food is still unaffordable and the majority of families cannot buy food. So it is a combination of those factors.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Food insecurity is related to poverty, but we are very aware that it is also related to mental health.

We are in the midst of a pandemic. Can you tell me what the current situation in Nunavut is?

[Lindsay Turner]

Nunavut only recently had its first case. We really saw how important food security was. If someone is infected by the virus and has no food, it is difficult for them to get some. Isolation exacerbates that issue.

More has been invested this year in Nunavut to improve food security. There was also the possibility to provide all sorts of programs to give people food hampers. The concern for us is the fact that this funding will no longer be available over the next few years. The critical aspect is the communities' capacity to develop and implement programs.

Finally, isolation and cancellation of programs have really had an impact. People often get food by participating in school programs or community programs. So when those programs end, there is a very high risk of food security taking a hit.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Finally, we have Ms. Blaney for two and a half minutes.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

Mrs. Turner and Ms. St. Denis, both of you talked about mentorship programs for harvesting and for country food.

Could both of you talk about those programs, and if there are any particular barriers that limit the capacity of your region to have them?

[Lindsay Turner]

The more obvious barriers would be the sustained funding to get out on the land consistently for long periods of time, and having the capacity within communities—that not-for-profit sector capacity, for example—to organize and manage the programs on a consistent basis so that they're not offered every now and then but all the time.

[Tracy St. Denis]

We actually have a few mentorship programs. We have a take a kid gardening program that is funded through the CAP program with Agriculture Canada. Recently we've announced an on-the-land program, which will include mentorship harvesting.

I would echo that it's not only funding capacity but the capacity of our own government. We're a small government and we punch above our weight. Our teams have done a good job coming up with this program. I'd love to report on it once we have everything rolling out, but we're always looking for additional resources.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Mrs. Turner, my last question is for you. It deals with the country food guidelines. I thought that was interesting and compelling. We did a study in the last Parliament around the care facilities for elders on reserve, and access to traditional food was one of the biggest barriers.

Could you talk about how that works, and how you're able to get that food into these care facilities?