SENATORS’ STATEMENTS — Food Security

Honourable senators, I rise today to speak about food security in the North and, more specifically, about food quality and safety. Equal country should mean equal standards. However, I find myself before you, once again, to speak about another gap in the Northwest Territories.

In July 2025, I travelled to Ulukhaktok, an isolated Inuvialuit community of about 400 people, accessible primarily by air and annual sealift. One of the 124 communities under the Nutrition North Canada subsidy.

While there, I visited the local Northmart and purchased a food item. While preparing it, I noted that the colour was off, there was a stale odour and it tasted spoiled. Checking the package revealed that the best-before date was nearly two years ago. Additionally, during the community meeting, juice boxes provided that were six months past their best-before date — an item covered under Nutrition North. That is an all-too-common occurrence in many communities across the Northwest Territories.

A best-before date indicates when food is at its best quality, while an expiry date indicates when food is no longer safe and must not be bought, sold or consumed once it has passed. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, or CFIA, regulates expiry dates, but best-before dates are treated as guidelines.

Herein lies the problem, because while it may be legal to sell food past its best-before date, we must ask this question: At what point does “legal” stop being acceptable?

Would this be tolerated in Ottawa? Would any grocery store in southern Canada leave products on shelves for years past their best-before date and still charge full price? The answer is no.

Yet, in northern communities, this is happening without any viable oversight. When access is limited, quality is not a preference; it is a necessity. In the North, people are, in many ways, captive consumers. There is often no second store, no alternative and no choice.

Since July, I have reached out to the North West Company, the CFIA and Indigenous Services Canada. This reflects a siloed system divided across three distinct areas — regulation, supply and enforcement — with no clear accountability.

In practice, this fragmentation ignores how isolation, cost, health and food quality intersect in the North. But let me be clear: ongoing dialogue cannot justify inaction.

To date, products past their best-before dates remain on the shelves in Ulukhaktok and many communities throughout Canada, and the Nutrition North Program is currently under review.

The investigation by the CFIA found and removed expired products in larger centres, but its mandate is limited to expiry dates, which leaves food quality largely unregulated, allowing products past best-before dates to remain on shelves.

This is not just about food; it is about equity, equality and dignity. Call to Action No. 19 under the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, or TRC, called on us to close the health gaps in outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. This includes something as basic as the quality of food available in our communities.

Equality should not depend on where you live or who you are. Canada has a responsibility to do better, and the North has every right to expect it.

Quyanainni, mahsi. Thank you.