Government of Canada announces improvements to Nutrition North Canada including support for country food

The Government of Canada recognizes that the Nutrition North Canada program has not been working for Northerners and is modernizing and reforming the program to better address Northerners’ needs.

 

Following extensive engagement with Northern and Indigenous partners, community members and key stakeholders, the Government of Canada is taking action to tackle the high cost of food for people living in isolated northern communities.

 

Yvonne Jones, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs and Internal Trade and Member of Parliament for Labrador, announced significant improvements to the Nutrition North Canada program on behalf of the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs and Internal Trade.

 

Part of the Government’s ongoing efforts to respond to the concerns and realities of Northerners, these improvements will help reduce the cost of perishable, nutritious food and make the program more transparent, effective, accountable and culturally relevant to Northerners and Indigenous people in isolated communities.

 

As of January 1, 2019, these improvements will include:

 

a fully revised subsidized foods list, which includes a focus on northern staples and family-friendly items;

a new highest-level subsidy rate specifically for milk, frozen fruit, frozen vegetables, infant formula, and infant food; and

an increase to the two current subsidy rates to help further lower cost of perishable, nutritious food.

 

Announcement follows the commitment in the 2018 Fall Economic Statement to invest an additional $62.6 million over five years starting in 2019–20, with $10.4 million ongoing, in the Nutrition North Canada program. These significant investments will help to support program changes, informed by consultations with Northerners, and will also introduce a Harvesters Support Grant to help lower the high costs associated with traditional hunting and harvesting activities, which are an important source of healthy, traditional food.

 

The announcement included the creation of an Inuit-Crown Food Security working group to focus on food security and work towards a sustainable food system in Inuit Nunangat. The current Indigenous working group will continue its important work ensuring that the unique interests, priorities and circumstances of First Nations and Métis are acknowledged, affirmed, and implemented.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.