NDP urges Liberals to tackle soaring prices in the North

New Democrat parliamentarians are urging the federal Liberals to address what they say is corporate greed driving a cost-of-living crisis for northern and Indigenous communities.

As record-high prices for food, fuel and heat ripple across the North, Ottawa can lighten the financial load by reforming its Nutrition North subsidy and cutting the GST from home heating, according to northern Manitoba MP Niki Asthon and Nunavut MP Lori Idlout.

They told reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday the Liberals could pay for program reform and offset tax cuts by hitting oil and gas companies, grocery chains and big-box retailers with a windfall tax: a one-time fee levied on unexpectedly large or unforeseen corporate profits.

"Canada doesn't just have an inflation crisis, we have an inequality crisis and nowhere is that more obvious than in northern and Indigenous communities," Ashton said.

The MPs held up pictures of eye-popping sticker prices to illustrate their point. Idlout showed a picture of tomatoes selling for $8.19 a bag in Nunavut versus $1.77 in Ottawa.

"Canned tuna is $9.77 in Nunavut versus $2.29 in Ottawa," she said.

Ashton, holding a receipt for a $346 tank of gas purchased in Pukatawagan, Man., said First Nations in Manitoba are wrestling with fuel prices topping $3 per litre. 

"Here, in so many communities where clean drinking water is not available, we have a one-litre bottle of water in Shamattawa First Nation for $7.09. Here in Ottawa, a four-litre bottle of clean drinking water is sold for $1.99," Ashton said, calling the numbers shocking and unacceptable.

"But unfortunately, they are the reality in many of the communities we represent and many Indigenous and northern communities across our country, and this demands federal action," she said.

The Nutrition North program aims to make healthy food and basic goods cheaper for 116 eligible northern communities. The subsidy goes to retailers for a list of eligible products with the expectation stores will pass on savings to buyers.

Idlout suggested the subsidy benefits the retailers but not customers. Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, in a plan to tackle food insecurity tabled last year, criticized the program and called for its reform, urging Ottawa to implement more rigorous cost-of-living relief measures.

Nutrition North suffers from a lack of transparency and absence of evaluation, making it impossible to say if it achieves its intended goals, despite Ottawa's claims of success, the national advocacy organization said.

The subsidy applies to everyone, regardless of income, and should instead be targeted to people who need it most, ITK President Natan Obed told CBC News on Wednesday.

"We believe — considering the high rates of food insecurity, the high rates of poverty, and the general disparity in income — that this program could be a more focused social program," Obed said.