Store manager in Old Crow, Yukon, says government food subsidy program can’t keep up with rising costs

Nearly $27 for a 12-pack of yogurt cups and $24 for a 4-liter jug ​​of milk are some of the prices residents of Old Crow, Yukon, pay at their local Co-op store.

And the city’s store manager said a government food program was partly to blame for the high prices.

Matthew Walsh, who manages the Co-op store, says the Canadian federal government’s Nutrition North Canada (NNC) program – created to make nutritious food more accessible and affordable for people in isolated northern communities – is not keeping pace with the rising costs of goods and services in Canada.

Registered retailers in eligible northern communities may apply for a subsidy based on the weight of food shipped by air. The subsidies are intended to be passed on to northern consumers by reducing the retail prices of eligible food items. The NNC program’s national manual governs the terms of the funding agreements with recipients of the federal subsidies.

Old Crow is the only community in Yukon eligible for grants under the Nutrition North program.

According to Walsh, the subsidy rate has only been increased once in the last two years, by 2.29 percent.

“That’s very low when you consider that our cargo freight rates have actually increased by 20.3 percent. And then you add almost two years of inflation,” he said.

Walsh said most of the food at Old Crow is shipped from Edmonton.

“We have transportation costs from Edmonton to Whitehorse, and then we have more transportation costs from Whitehorse to Old Crow, and then we have more transportation costs from the airport directly to the store.”

According to Walsh, Old Crow is the seventh rural community he has worked in that is eligible for the NNC subsidies, and of all seven, it is the most expensive place to buy nutritious food.

“A pound of butter has become 35.04 percent more expensive,” he said. “Romaine lettuce has become 85.84 percent more expensive. A kilogram of yellow onions has become 80.13 percent more expensive. Peppers have become 53.69 percent more expensive.”

“The biggest issue that I think is causing a lot of grief in our community right now is the four-liter milk. We received an increase of 71.48 percent.”

Walsh wants Yukon politicians to visit his store so he can explain to them what it’s like to run a business in a very remote location while keeping prices affordable for citizens.

He said if Canada commits to supporting people in remote communities through food subsidies, those subsidies must keep pace with the rate of inflation or the program will not achieve its goal.

“We have to do better,” says MP

Brendan Hanley, Liberal MP for Yukon, said the Nutrition North Canada program is helping stores reduce costs for consumers, but acknowledged that the subsidies do not reflect current inflation rates.

“It does equalize prices to some extent,” Hanley said. “I don’t think it alone will ever be able to explain or offset the high cost of food.”

Yukon MP Brendan Hanley, seen here in Ottawa in 2021, said there are “some really concrete efforts underway to make life better in Old Crow.” (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

Hanley said there are other federal programs that address food security and sustainability for northern people, such as the Harvesters Support Grant and the Community Food Programs Fund.

In the meantime, the entire Nutrition North Canada program is currently under review by the Canadian federal government, Hanley said. However, he did not say when that review would be completed.

“It would be worse without the program, but we need to improve. There is still a lot of work to be done to improve the lives and affordability of Old Crow residents,” Hanley said.

“I understand the problem very well and after talking to many people, I believe that some really concrete efforts are being made to make life better.”

CBC News has reached out to Canada’s Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, which oversees the Nutrition North program, for an interview. No one from the department was immediately available for comment.