REGINA - Cumberland NDP MLA Jordan McPhail is welcoming a review of the Nutrition North program by the federal government.
“I’m pleased that the federal government has announced a review of the broken Nutrition North program,” said McPhail in a statement from the NDP. “This is an important first step to modernizing Nutrition North, which I wrote to the federal minister about earlier this year.“
This week, federal Minister of Northern Affairs Gary Anandasangaree announced the appointment of Aluki Kotierk as the Minister’s Special Representative to conduct an external review of Nutrition North Canada.
Minister Anandasangaree also announced up to $20 million is being set aside to meet what the government describes as increasing food security challenges facing children and families, under the Nutrition North Canada program, according to the federal news release.
McPhail has been calling for food security issues in the North to be addressed since his election to the Legislature last fall. He had met with Anandasangaree during a tour of the North and followed up with a letter to him on the food security issue.
In that correspondence dated Jan. 17, McPhail repeated concerns he had expressed in the Saskatchewan legislature and elsewhere about Northern food prices, and about concerns about the scurvy outbreak seen in the North last year.
“Whoever the next Prime Minister is, they need to act immediately to fix Nutrition North and lower food costs for people in Northern Saskatchewan. It’s not acceptable that people living in the North today are paying $18 for a jug of milk or $15 for a bag of apples,” said McPhail in a statement.
McPhail also took another shot at the Saskatchewan Party government, who had stopped his motion on Northern food prices from getting to the floor of the legislature during its recent fall sitting.
“It’s shameful that the Sask. Party has been completely missing in action on this file,” said McPhail.
