Policy Recommendations for Improving Food Sovereignty and Transport Infrastructure in Nunavut
By Katrin Schmid
Policymakers at the territorial and federal levels can take targeted actions to enhance food sovereignty and improve transportation infrastructure in Nunavut. The following recommendations are based on key findings from community consultations and research.
1. Support for Country Food Access & Distribution
- Support the creation of community-run country food stores in Iqaluit and other major hubs and establish an official sharing network.
- Provide long-term funding for community freezers and subsidize maintenance, especially in smaller communities.
- Continue and expand on stabile funding programs such as the Nunavut Harvesters Support Program and Nauttiqsuqtiit.
- Develop regional cold storage hubs not connected to the airline (e.g., a country food handling facility in Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, Pond Inlet or Resolute Bay) to improve redistribution across Nunavut.
2. Transportation Policy Changes
- Modify Canadian North’s cargo subsidy policies to allow cooperatives and small businesses (e.g., Sedna’s Lair, QCFC) to access flat-rate pricing.
- Ensure that country food shipments are properly stored and compensate harvesters for spoiled or lost cargo.
- Improve weather monitoring, navigation and communication systems at airports to reduce flight cancellations and delays.
- Support regional air cargo expansion, potentially through a second airline or cargo service focused on food and essential goods.
- Reduce disproportionate cargo costs for intra-community shipments (e.g., shipping from Resolute Bay to Grise Fiord should not be more expensive than to Ottawa).
3. Infrastructure Development Strategies
- Nunavummiut-Centered Planning: More transparency in all stages of planning process. Offer a variety of ways to engage and share concerns/desires.
- Prioritize multi-use infrastructure (small craft harbors, repair shops, storage spaces) to serve both economic and community needs.
- Focus on strengthening intra-territorial networks to improve connections between communities.
- Expand community storage capacity to improve resilience against food shortages and logistical delays.
- Require joint-use agreements that ensure military and resource sector infrastructure (e.g., airstrips, roads, ports) serves local communities as well.
4. Economic and Workforce Development
- Establish Nunavut-based training programs for aviation, mechanics, and trades to reduce dependence on fly-in workers from the South.
- Support high school trades and apprenticeship programs to train local residents in maintaining transport and storage infrastructure.
- Encourage multi-year funding models for sustainable food sovereignty initiatives.
- Support community economic initiatives and smaller-scale territorial projects to address the high cost of food and limited variety in local stores to reduce reliance on external sources like Amazon.
5. Social Work and Relationship Building
- Engage directly with Nunavut communities through long-term partnerships, and make the effort to connect with residents beyond the usual group by offering multiple ways to get involved/voice one’s opinion.
- Consolidate information about proposed and ongoing projects into a database available to the public to reduce information overflow and fatigue while increasing transparency.
- Collaborate with airlines, local businesses, and Inuit organizations to ensure policies are effectively implemented, even beyond the project run-time.
- Promote Inuit-led futures by disrupting imaginaries inundated with settler-colonial perspectives and instead encouraging Nunavummi Inuit to imagine what futures they want for their own communities.
