The Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce is quite disappointed with the recent changes to the Nutrition North Program announced last week by Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt.
The provincial chamber warns the issue could be brought up in the next federal election.
The Nutrition North Program subsidizes the cost to fly in food for northern residents but the communities of Fond du Lac, Stony Rapids and Black Lake don’t qualify for the new subsidy.
Curtis Hemming, the director of government relations with the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce, says they continue to talk with officials from the Nutrition North Program.
“We did have concerns with how the actual subsidy was determined,” says Hemming. “And unfortunately Saskatchewan’s three communities, they didn’t use the previous Food Mail Program very much and that’s why they’re now stuck with the partial subsidy.”
According to Hemming, Fort Albany, Ontario gets $1.30 per kilogram subsidy while the northern Saskatchewan communities get five cents per kilogram.
“This program is important to remote communities all across Canada and certainly to the northern communities in Saskatchewan,” says Hemming. “And given that there’s going to be a federal election sometime in the next year. It would be a good idea for some of Saskatchewan’s Conservative MPs and MPs around the country to look more closely at improving this program.”