Minister Vandal announces appointments to the Nutrition North Canada Advisory Board

Press Release

July 15, 2021 — Ottawa, Ontario — Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada

Everyone deserves to have access to healthy, affordable, high-quality and nutritious food, no matter where they live. Nutrition North Canada continuously works in collaboration with provincial, territorial, Indigenous and program partners to tackle food insecurity and ensure access to essential items in Northern and remote communities. Nutrition North Canada programming is informed directly by the Nutrition North Canada Advisory Board, its Indigenous Working Group and the Inuit–Crown Food Security Working Group.

Today, the Minister of Northern Affairs, the Honourable Daniel Vandal, announced the appointment of Brenda Jancke, Beth Kotierk, Janice Grey-Scott and Dr. Sarah Jane Cook to the Nutrition North Canada Advisory Board.

The Nutrition North Canada Advisory Board is an integral part of the program’s design and gives residents of isolated Northern communities a direct voice in the program. The board works closely with community members and program users to ensure that community perspectives are heard and considered. Appointing additional advisory board members from across Nutrition North Canada’s vast delivery area will both strengthen and amplify local expertise in the program.
Quotes

“Through a whole-of-government approach, the Government of Canada is improving food security in the North by working in collaboration with provinces, territories and Indigenous partners. Through hard work and strong support from partners, the program continues to improve with locally led solutions for Northerners, by Northerners. These new appointments to the Nutrition North Canada Advisory Board will play an important role in ensuring that communities in the North continue to have access to healthy, affordable and nutritious food and other essential items.”

The Honourable Daniel Vandal, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Northern Affairs

Quick facts

Nutrition North Canada is a Government of Canada program that helps make nutritious food and some essential items more affordable and more accessible to residents in isolated Northern communities.
Appointments to the Nutrition North Canada Advisory Board are made by the Minister of Northern Affairs and are subject to the Government of Canada’s open and transparent selection process.
The Nutrition North Advisory Board is composed of up to seven members, including a chair and vice-chair.
Board members provide advice to the Minister of Northern Affairs to help guide the direction and activities of the Nutrition North Canada program and ensure that Northerners benefit fully from it.
Board members serve in their own right as volunteers and not as representatives of any particular organization, area or special interest. They are appointed to three-year terms.
The program works directly with Indigenous and Northern partners to understand and address their food security priorities. Nutrition North Canada supports eligible northern communities in three ways:
- Nutrition North Canada Retail Subsidy Program: By subsidizing a list of perishable foods and essential items flown in by air, and non-perishable foods and essential items brought in by seasonal sealift, barge or winter road.
- Harvesters Support Grant Program: By increasing Northerners’ access to traditional foods by supporting hunting, harvesting and food sharing.
- Nutrition Education Program: By delivering community-based nutrition education activities and building on existing activities to increase access to healthy food (led by Indigenous Services Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada).
Budget 2021 proposes to provide $163.4 million over three years, starting in 2021–22, to expand the Nutrition North Canada program and enable the Minister of Northern Affairs to work directly with Indigenous partners, including in Inuit Nunangat, to address food insecurity.