Food security advocate Kathy Okpik led 30 Iqalummiut in a loud protest against high grocery prices in front of Northmart on Saturday.
Despite the retail backdrop, the federal government was the intended audience for their message.
Speaking into a megaphone and introduced by its siren wail, Okpik called on the federal government to accelerate its ongoing examination into food subsidies in the territory.
Becca Gesch, centre, holds a sign that reads “food security is a human right.” That sentiment was echoed by others throughout a protest in Iqaluit on Saturday. (Photo by Daron Letts)
The federal government announced an external review of a portion of its Nutrition North subsidy program in October 2024. That review is being led by former Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. president Aluki Kotierk. Nutrition North was launched in 2011 as a way to make nutritious food more affordable in the North.
“We really need to know about the Nutrition North study that’s happening,” she said. “The subsidy needs to go directly to the people and not to big corporations where they control the prices.”
Others in the crowd denounced what they called price gouging in the wake of initiatives aimed at reducing costs for Inuit households, such as the federal government’s Inuit Child First Initiative.
Its universal food voucher program used to give Inuit families $500 a month for every child they had under the age of 18, but was scrapped in favour of a plan that gives out vouchers based on individual families’ applications.
The Inuit Child First Initiative, which expired at the end of March, got a temporary extension of its funding earlier this year, but its long-term future has been uncertain since the end of the federal government’s previous fiscal year.
“We need to look at our consumer affairs division in our government of Nunavut,” said Okpik, a former Government of Nunavut deputy minister. She pointed to the many households reaching out for donations of food and leftovers on Facebook.
“They have nowhere else to turn to but social media,” she said.
If Iqaluit households are struggling, people in remote communities are having an even harder time, she added.
Dozens of drivers gave a toot of their horns as they passed the spectacle along Queen Elizabeth Way.
Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. President Jeremy Tunraluk, who recently returned from the organization’s annual general meeting in Rankin Inlet on Thursday where the issue of food security was discussed, called on Inuit to take the lead away from the federal government.
“We, as Inuit leaders, need to take charge,” he said, speaking into a megaphone. “Take the lead to make sure that we’re not only voicing our concerns, but making sure that we’re actually delivering programs for food security.”
Becca Gesch, carrying a handmade sign reading “food security is a human right,” called on the federal government to “decolonize food security”.
“We need to make sure that Indigenous are fed and have access to food and healthcare and affordable everything,” Gesch said.
Several candidates in Monday’s territorial election spoke in support of the protest, including Adam Arreak Lightstone, running in the Iqaluit-Manirajak constituency, Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster in Iqaluit-Sinaa, Tatanniq Lucie Idlout in Iqaluit-Niaqunnguu, and George Hickes and Malaiya Lucassie in Iqaluit-Tasiluk.
Nunatsiaq News reached out to Northmart communications director by email, but did not receive a response Saturday afternoon.
