Qukiqtani Inuit Association: “Food Sovereignty and Harvesting” – Food sovereignty for Inuit means the right to nutritious locally-sourced food. In Nunavut this translates to country food. Harvesters play an integral role in Inuit food sovereignty. They provide country food that feeds communities, reinvigorates Inuit cultural practices and stimulates local economies. Food sovereignty incorporates Inuit knowledge, language, culture continuity and community self-sufficiency. Supporting food sovereignty shows a commitment towards reconciliation.

Nutrition North Canada (NNC) is a Government of Canada subsidy program intended to provide Northerners in isolated communities with improved access to perishable nutritious food. QIA echoes the position articulated by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. about the shortcomings of Nutrition North Canada. Like previous food subsidy programs, Nutrition North has fallen short of meeting its objectives.

“We found that [The Ministry] has not verified whether the northern retailers pass on the full subsidy to consumers.” Auditor General, 2014

• NNC does not subsidize hunting, fishing and harvesting equipment which creates systemic barriers for Inuit to cultivate our local food systems
• Less than one per cent of the total NNC budget has contributed to increasing access to country food
  NNC preferentially supports imported, factory-farmed animal protein rather than locally harvested country food
• NNC is based on a market-driven model that treats food as a commodity rather than a basic human right
• NNC protects the interest of the retailers by not making public the terms of the agreement between the Government of Canada and northern businesses that benefit from the subsidy
• NNC allows retailers to exercise arbitrary power over food pricing without checks and balances to ensure the full subsidy is passed on to consumers
• NNC does not require that landed freight costs of food and the profit margin collected by retailers be made publicly available making it impossible to determine if the subsidy is passed on to consumers
• NNC program structure is fragmented as it is administrated by different federal departments located in the south

https://www.qia.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Food-Sovereignty-and-Harvesting.pdf”