Labrador residents say “inhumane” food prices force families to go hungry

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — A mother in a community where the cost of living is one of the highest in the country says grocery prices are “inhumane” and retailers are putting profits ahead of people’s basic human right to food.

Rosie Harris lives in a blended family with seven children in Nain, the northernmost community in Labrador. She and her husband have three jobs between them — it’s the only way they can afford enough food to feed the entire family, she said.

Last winter, when they had just two sources of income, they regularly skipped meals so their children could eat, Harris said.

She still feels anxious some mornings when she reaches for a slice of toast, like she’s taking something from her family.

“It was hard getting back into a routine of, ‘You can have breakfast and supper, you can have a snack.’ It’s almost like I’m traumatized,” Harris said in a recent interview.

“I don’t know how they would expect those prices to be OK.”

Nain is home to about 1,200 people, and it is one of five fly-in Inuit communities along Labrador’s north coast. As of 2021, the cost of food in Nain was the highest among the remote northern Canadian communities where retail companies qualify for subsidies through the federal Nutrition North Canada program.

The estimated cost of a basket of healthy food to feed a family of four in Nain shot up by nearly 62 per cent between 2011 and 2021, according to data from the program. It’s the highest spike among the reporting communities. The figure is a stark contrast from the other northern communities that qualify for the subsidy, where the average price of food actually dropped by two per cent over that period, data show.

The Nutrition North subsidies are aimed at equalizing food prices across the north and keeping products affordable by offsetting shipping costs. But as Nain shows, it’s not working, said Nicholas Li, an economist at the Toronto Metropolitan University who studies the subsidies.

“The important factor about the (program) is there’s absolutely nothing to stop retailers from charging any price they want,” Li said in a recent interview.

Nain has two stores where people buy groceries: Franks, which is owned by a Labrador-based company and has limited selection, and the Northern Store, which is owned by the Winnipeg-based North West Company. Franks is known among residents of Nain to have cheaper prices than Northern, but less on offer, Harris said.

As an example of the price differences, she shared pictures with The Canadian Press showing a litre of two per cent Grand Pré milk: $6.19 at Northern and $4.99 at Franks earlier this month. Residents feel the differences between the two stores suggest Northern is overcharging them.

Other residents shared photos from Northern showing a 1.7-kilogram cabbage costing $10.18, a two-pound pack of black plums going for $15.29, and a 1.42-litre bottle of Crisco cooking oil selling for $21.49.

“It’s pure greed,” Harris said.

Lela Evans, the region’s Progressive Conservative member of the legislature, accused the two Northern Stores along the coast of “price gouging” and driving food insecurity in a social media post earlier this month.

Darryl Martin, a spokesperson for the North West Company, said there are “logistical challenges” shipping to different communities.

“Pricing reflects multiple factors including costs related to transportation, wholesale and manufacturer prices, and overhead costs for our stores,” he wrote in an email. “We are constantly evaluating products to make sure we are providing our customers with healthy, affordable options for their everyday needs.”

Patty Dicker, who owns the region’s Franks stores, said the Nutrition North subsidies have not kept up with rising freight costs.

The federal government is reviewing the program, and Li said it should consider introducing price caps on products subsidized with public money.

Ottawa should also consider helping to establish co-operatives or government-run stores, he added.

He pointed to the state-owned Pilersuisoq stores across Greenland, and La Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau-Québec, a network of co-ops across Nunavik providing grocery stores, hotels and even cable television.

“They’re not run in the same way as publicly traded profit-maximizing corporations,” he said, noting that many co-ops in Inuit communities in Canada were established with help from the federal government.

“The belief was that instead of just having Northern Stores, which are the successor of the Hudson’s Bay Company kind of colonial enterprise, you need to have more local ownership,” Li said, referring to the company’s origins as a trading corporation from the 1600s whose operations were often intertwined with the British Empire.

In the meantime, he said the Canadian government should make more data available about the prices retailers charge for products subsidized by the Nutrition North program, so the public can hold the companies accountable.

Harris said those reviewing the program should visit Nain, and witness the impacts of the food prices.

“If they could see, from my point of view, all these struggles for all these families,” she said. “Sometimes it feels like we go on the back burner because we’re far away.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2024.

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press