By Angela Hill

Food subsidy program expanding

Mar 21, 2011 | 12:13 PM

Canada’s northern food subsidies program is expanding their list of eligible items.

“There was complaint from northerners and basically from retailers in the north that they didn’t get enough time to prepare to ship these non-perishable and non-food items through the sea lift and winter roads,” said Dominic Demers, manager for the Nutrition North program.

The Nutrition North program was announced last year as a way of helping to make nutritious foods more accessible and less costly for people living in remote communities. It replaced the food mail program.

The list of foods eligible for subsidy from the Government of Canada was expanded to include all food, as well as most non-food items until October 2012.

“The reason why they were delisted initially was because they are non-perishable and can be shipped through more cost effective modes of transportation, (such as) the sea lift and winter roads,” Demers said.

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That means for the next 18 months, starting Apr. 1, foods such as yogurt, frozen fruit and cereals will still be subsidized, along with foods that were initially taken off the list like bacon, Jello and Kraft dinner.

“Most of the foods that were temporarily reinstated on the list are still healthy, for example canned vegetables, rice and dry pasta were reinstated on the list. These are healthy foods,” Demers said.

There are three communities in Saskatchewan eligible for the subsidies in the Nutrition North program, Stony Rapids, Black Lake and Fond du Lac.

They are only partially eligible because they were not using the food mail program to its full extent. The subsidy is currently a rate of five cents per kilogram, but data is being collected to determine the ongoing eligibility of those communities.

Demers said that it is important to subsidize healthy foods to the north.

“It’s very important that’s why the government decided to invest more money in the program,” he said.

The expansion of the eligible list means an additional $15 to $20 million over the 18 month period.

ahill@panow.com