October 11, 2024 — Iqaluit, Nunavut — Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada

Everyone deserves access to healthy and affordable food, no matter where they live. Rising costs are a reality for people across Canada, and this is especially true in isolated northern communities, where food and essential items are often transported long distances. Nutrition North Canada (NNC) is an important part of the Government of Canada’s response to food security in the North and it strives for continuous improvement to make the subsidy program more meaningful to those it impacts.

Today, while at the fifth annual Arctic and Northern Policy Framework Leadership Committee meeting in Iqaluit, the Honourable Dan Vandal, Minister of Northern Affairs and Minister responsible for CanNor, announced measures to review the NNC program.

A Ministerial Special Representative will be appointed in early 2025 to launch an  external review of the NNC program. Reporting directly to the Minister of Northern Affairs, the Ministerial Special Representative will be independent of the federal public service, and would have a mandate to meet with national and regional Indigenous organizations and stakeholders, as well as relevant federal government organizations to evaluate NNC’s effectiveness, and to make recommendations on how to improve it. A final report would be completed in 2026.

In December 2024, a research symposium will be conveyed to bring together the Food Security Research Grant recipients, which includes Indigenous partners and academics, to discuss interim findings of several projects that study food security in northern isolated communities. At the symposium, meaningful discussions will take place to consider program-level recommendations and improvements to NNC. The research studies are expected to be completed in 2025.

The NNC program is always working with its partners and hears from Northerners to continuously improve the program and make it work better for the people it impacts. The two measures announced today will help ensure the NNC program addresses challenges and positions itself to be more effective in enhancing food security in the North.