The Nutrition North food subsidy program is expanding to five Northern Saskatchewan communities that had been excluded.
They include Uranium City, Fond-du-Lac, Stony Rapids, Black Lake and Wollaston Lake. Partial subsidies were already available in Fond-du-Lac, Stony Rapids and Black Lake, however it is not clear by the government release whether they will now receive full subsidies.
The changes take place October 1st, 2016. It follows months of lobbying by the Northern communities who were finding increasing difficult to buy affordable food.
The updates to the program are part of this year’s federal budget commitment to provide an extra 65 million for the program over the next five years, with annual increases of about 14 million beginning in 2021.
The program is designed to offset the high cost of food transportation to remote northern regions.