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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 338

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
September 18, 2024 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 338 - Sep/18/24
Ms. Lori Idlout (Nunavut, NDP)
  • Sep/18/24 7:04:05 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, Nunavummiut still have the highest levels of food insecurity in the country. My home territory has the highest number of children going to school and to bed with empty stomachs. Mothers are not eating enough so their children can be full and grow up healthy. These conditions are by design of the federal government. These conditions do not happen by accident. These conditions are on purpose. The Liberal government continues to refuse to fix the broken nutrition north program. When will the suffering finally be enough for the Liberals to act? While people are suffering in poverty, the Minister of Northern Affairs' response is to do more studies. His response, when I requested that the Auditor General review the program, was to do an internal review and then, possibly, an external review. The message was clear that he is not committed to helping alleviate poverty. His commitment is to protect corporate greed. The first and only person who has been the Minister of Northern Affairs since his role was created claims to be absolutely committed to 100% of the retail subsidy being passed on directly to northerners. In fact, he said his internal audit will make sure of that. The minister says his internal review will assess nutrition north's performance. I can tell him right now that its performance is terrible. Food insecurity and prices have continued to rise under the program. The minister should recall that when I called the CEO of the North West Company, Dan McConnell, to appear before the indigenous and northern affairs committee, he refused to disclose that he earned $3.9 million in one year. The North West Company uses nutrition north. That means we can interpret that Canadian tax dollars are funding corporate greed. I travelled to 13 Kivalliq and Kitikmeot communities this summer. I heard the same thing everywhere: "We cannot afford the cost of living in Nunavut. We cannot afford groceries. We cannot feed our families." My constituents are yelling for help. I have repeated that in this House so many times. The federal government keeps ignoring us. Nunavummiut do not need another internal study. Nunavummiut need to be able to feed their families. Ten years ago, the Auditor General exposed that nutrition north was not meeting its objective to increase Inuit's northern food access. The Auditor General said the government "has not done the work necessary to verify that northern retailers are passing on to consumers the full government subsidy". The Auditor General revealed that the government is not requiring retailers to tell it where the tax dollars are going or how high the profits have climbed. What a great deal for a big business. My question is simple. Will the Minister of Northern Affairs stop delaying and finally tell us the program will be improved so tax dollars are shown going to alleviate poverty and not going into the pockets of rich CEOs?
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Context: House Hansard - 338 - Sep/18/24
Ms. Lori Idlout
  • Sep/18/24 7:11:47 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, Amautiit Nunavut Inuit Women's Association released a report on child poverty in April 2024, and its report showed that those dollars are not working because children are still in poverty. The close to $100 million that you mentioned in your response is going to corporate greed. Your government's data on the nutrition north program—
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