Not All That Glitters is Gold: How Inflation in Northern Canada Differs from Southern Canada

Photo Credit: Carlos Osorio/Reuters

After reaching 6.8 per cent earlier this year, Canada’s inflation rate has begun to near its goal of 2 per cent once again. Food and gas prices have decreased, and many other commodities aren’t priced as high as they were earlier this year.

However, this is not the case for northern Canada, where commodities like groceries are given luxury prices. The difference between northern and southern Canada is extreme in their grocery store shelves. There are higher costs of commodities in the northern area and most products are on the verge of rotting, according to Now Toronto. 

Inflation rates in northern Canada have been high for more than a decade. Since most regions in northern Canada are remote, food prices there would be much higher, Dr. Malek Batal, a Research Chair in Nutrition and Health Inequalities of Canada, told Global Citizen. 

This inflation has also been affected by climate change, as Canada experiences its effects at two times the rate of the rest of the world.This is because it is in the northern hemisphere, according to Canada’s Changing Climate Report. Changing weather patterns ruin the crops many Canadian farmers produce for sale nationwide, making this produce more scarce and harder to find in rural stores.

"Everything is about four times more expensive here [in Nunavut]," said Muhammad Wani, vice-president of the Islamic Society of Nunavut and head of the organization's Arctic Food Bank to National Observer. "If you purchase, say, $35 worth of groceries down south […] here it will be $100." 

Although food prices in northern Canada are a long-standing issue, global events like the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine raised these prices even more, Reuters reported. 

Since the beginning of COVID-19, Canada’s economy has taken a dive, which greatly impacted the inflation rates as well. Last year, inflation rates steeply inclined; which according to Global News, is something Canadians haven’t seen since 1983. 

The Bank of Canada has taken many measures since last year to combat inflation, including hiking interest rates to reduce the high costs countrywide. CBC reported that these measures were effective for the southern part of Canada, but the factors contributing to the high inflation in northern Canada have yet to be alleviated.

Indigenous peoples in the northern territories are becoming increasingly angry as little action has been taken on this matter, Now Toronto reports. Many Inuit community members spoke out about their experience with inflation, some commenting on how it was nearly impossible for families to feed their children in proper quantities. 

As the prices for non-luxury items skyrocket in northern Canada, parents are unable to afford food products to have a healthy and balanced diet for their children. Dr. Anna Banerji, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health in Toronto, published a paper on the effects of food shortages in Indigenous communities. Her paper is primarily centered around how these issues are affecting children the most. 

Bannerji told Global News that because most families are unable to afford these high prices, they end up purchasing ultra processed foods, which leads to malnutrition amongst many Indigenous youth. Bannerji’s research found that malnourished children in Nunavik were an average of 2 cm shorter than other “food secure” Canadian children. In addition, children are more likely to have cognitive and behavioural problems as a result of this issue.

As someone who has many personal connections with Indigenous people in the north, Bannerji urges people to take action to stop this issue from persisting. “We’ve got children who are starving in this country, how is that reconciliation?…We have to go beyond the rhetoric and make some real substantial changes.” 

On social media, several influencers have spoken out about the circumstances Indigenous peoples have had to endure for over a decade. In a TikTok video, user Shina Nova (@shinanova) shared images of the cost of many food products and stressed that people should take action to prevent this from continuing or getting worse. Nova is a highly influential Indigenous figure, with over 4.2 million followers on TikTok. She advocates for the rights of Indigenous peoples, especially youth and women. 

Another influencer, Willow Allen (@willow.allen), posted a TikTok video where she filmed herself purchasing groceries at a store. The prices of these groceries were high, and the price ended up being twice as much as it would be in southern Canada. Nutella at the grocery store was $48.59 before tax, whereas it would generally be around $7.49 in southern Canadian grocery stores. In the comment section of the video, many viewers were shocked about these prices; others replied that this has been the case for northern Canadians for years. 

In a video addressing high inflation, Now Toronto spoke with a TikTok user who compared different food items to products in southern Canada and commented that most of these items were rotten.

As the crisis continued, politicians like NDP leader Jagmeet Singh commented. After a visit to Iqaluit in late October, Singh heard many accounts of the high inflation circumstances they have endured. Singh said to Nunatsiaq News that Indigenous peoples should continue fighting the issue, “and instead of asking them [the federal government] nicely, let's force them to lower prices by putting in better protections, stronger laws that would actually bring these prices down.” 

In response to concerns over the years, the government developed the Nutrition North Canada Program in 2011 to provide northern grocers with a subsidy for basic commodities like fresh vegetables or milk. Despite expectations that the program would reduce food costs, Indigenous communities have commented that it hasn't helped them much. CBC News reported in 2014 that a reason for this may be that retailers did not use the subsidy as intended.

"So-called solutions, like the Nutrition North program, are not solutions and are certainly not the permanent solutions to the kind of food insecurity and high cost of living northern communities face," NDP MP Niki Ashton said.