A jug of milk in some aboriginal communities in northern Manitoba, Canada, can cost as much as $15, and a single apple can set residents back $1 or $2, reports CBC Manitoba.
Farmers, academics, civil servants, and civil society representatives convened in Winnipeg, Manitoba, from October 14 to 16 for the 2004 Food Security Assembly. Their goal: to assist the Canadian government in keeping its World Food Summit promise to help reduce the number of the world's hungry by half. The promise is a constant reminder to northern Canada's aboriginal communities that food costs have gone through the roof.
Though the price of perishables has come down over the past decade, northern communities in Manitoba have at times paid more than twice what comparable goods cost in Winnipeg, according to a joint report by representatives from the tribal councils, the provincial government, and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC).
The high cost of nutritious food may be contributing to a nutritional crisis in aboriginal communities. Surveys conducted by INAC reveal a common pattern in aboriginal communities of "much lower consumption of fruits, vegetables, and dairy products than is recommended for Canadians, a high consumption of sugar and sweets, intakes of fat and saturated fat that are above recommended levels, and intakes of calcium, magnesium, folate, vitamin C and vitamin A that are lower than recommended." The problem is particularly pronounced for the younger generation. Such disparities result in abnormally high rates of diabetes and other diseases in aboriginal communities.
The Northern Food Prices Project was carried out in 2002 by directive of the Healthy Child Committee of Cabinet to address high food prices in northern Manitoba. Researchers suggested seven strategic goals to improve food self-sufficiency, including price reviews, local food provision and business development programs, and greenhouse and gardens initiatives. Solutions to the problem of high food prices will have to be based on partnerships between northern leaders and communities, the government, and the food industry, said Debora Lyall, acting director of Manitoba Agriculture, Food, and Rural Initiatives and chair of the project steering committee.
According to Lyall, cooperation on the project by aboriginal, municipal, and regional organizations and various levels of government was exemplary.
"Because everyone knew how important the issue was, we were all on the same wavelength in calling for community-based solutions," she said. Project participants agreed that "the southern solution can't be used as a template in the north because southern solutions have never worked in northern communities."
Aboriginal activists from the Manitoba Keewatinook Ininew Okimowin (MKO), a representative group of Manitoba First Nations, responded well to the report's recommendations but pointed out that the government has yet to act on them.
"Substantive change in terms of the reduction of the cost of food in rural and northern communities has not occurred," Michael Anderson, a research director with MKO, told CBC Manitoba.
Eleanor Brockington, director of policy and strategic initiatives for the Aboriginal Affairs Secretariat, said some implementation is in the works, but that work in a new arena is always "difficult to get off the ground."
INAC has set aside $257,000 for a new Northern Healthy Foods Initiative, said Colin Lemoine, a spokesperson for Minister Oscar Lathlin. Because transportation is a big part of the problem, the initiative aims to help northern communities be more efficient at food production, he said, and has already helped fund a pilot project for food harvesting in Red Sucker Lake First Nation. The provincial government has also tripled the amount spent on roads, extending the road network from 1,600 to 2,300 kilometers since 1999.
Another suggestion might be to encourage use of Canada's Food Mail Program among food retailers in Manitoba. The program pays part of the cost of shipping nutritious perishable food by air to isolated northern communities that are not accessible year-round by road, rail, or marine service. Though retailers in certain northern Manitoba communities are eligible for the subsidy, none of the program's funding has been distributed to Manitoba, according to INAC, which administers the program.
Lyall said most food businesses in Manitoba find that the Food Mail Program subsidy is not a significant benefit compared to regular freight costs, especially when logistical problems, such as separate packaging for foods shipped as part of the program, are taken into account.
Whatever the proposed solution, it has to come from the communities, said Adelard Blackman, an activist from Buffalo River Dene Nation in Saskatchewan. Initiatives from the federal or provincial government are usually nothing more than band-aid solutions, he said.
"I've been to northern Manitoba and northern Saskatchewan communities," Blackman said, "and the situation is really bad. There's no work, and no money. People go to the stores and they can't even cover the bill. Something has to happen fast. We need a workable solution the communities can live with and the government can support."
