The Federal Government has announced measures to help ensure that northerners living in isolated communities have access to quality and nutritious food.  They have expanded the Nutrition North Canada Program to include 37 more northern communities including 12 in northern Manitoba.  The Assistant Deputy Minister of Northern Affairs Stephen Van Dine explains the program was updated in 2011. He says the key elements of that change were to shift it from a transportation based subsidy to more of a retail subsidy and that put shipping decisions in the hands of the retailers who they were encouraging to make the most efficient transportation choices or supply chain choices to get their goods to the community and nutritious and perishable foods became the focal point for what was eligible.  He says that enabled them to actually add another piece to the program which was nutrition education which they did through First Nations Inuit Health Branch of Health Canada.

The government will continue engagement sessions in September with northern communities including Oxford House and St. Theresa’s Point in Manitoba on how to improve the program.