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June 4th, 2015

NDP delivers a plan to fix Nutrition North

On the heels of a successful Respect the North campaign, the NDP has presented a motion aimed at fixing Nutrition North. The motion calls for the immediate inclusion of the fifty communities being left out of Nutrition North, as well as renewed efforts to improve the well-being of Canadians living in isolated communities in Northern Canada.

“Nutrition North must be more equitable so that funding reflects the real circumstances that northerners are facing,” said NDP MP Dennis Bevington (Northwest Territories). “Above all, no Canadian should go hungry.”

The Respect the North campaign comes after a New Democrat-triggered Auditor General report which found that the Nutrition North program had minimal impact on food costs and lacked transparency or accountability. The AG report also found there are over fifty communities that should be receiving subsidy under the program, but are currently being left out.

The motion reads as follows:

“That the House call on the government to take immediate action to fix Nutrition North Canada and to improve the well-being of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians in Northern Canada by: (a) 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; (b) 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; (c) creating equitable program-eligibility criteria for Northern communities based on their real circumstances; (d) providing sufficient funding to meet the needs of all Northern communities; and (e) working with all Northerners to develop a sustainable solution to food insecurity”