Today on CBC I listened to our chief medical officer talking about the toll being taken amongst northern Canadians by the exorbitant cost of food as profiled in a National Heart and Stroke Foundation report.
Dr. Corriveau has been working on a project in the Beaufort-Delta called Healthy Foods North, which has found that in our isolated northern communities there are significant deficiencies and intake of basic nutrients of calcium, vitamin D, and other essential
nutrients. He mentioned that with the move away from traditional diets, we have turned to milk as the source of calcium and vitamin D for people.
Because of the prohibitive cost of milk in many communities, parents often provide their babies and young children with sugar water, like Tang and Kool-Aid, in place of milk. This occurs even using baby bottles, contributing to baby bottle mouth and other serious and expensive health problems. Ensuring that young children are provided with sufficient quantities of milk prevents large costs later in life in areas like health and education. Milk contributes to healthy brain development and physical activity.
At the risk of being repetitive, milk or equivalent substitutes in the case of allergies is known to be the single most important nutrient for children, essential for healthy and normal growth and development.
The Standing Committee on Social Programs, the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning, and the people have spoken out clearly in support of a milk subsidy where it’s needed. This Assembly has passed a motion in support of this program. The absence of a milk subsidy in this budget is a hole that gapes widely in our small communities where, as my colleague from Nunakput says, people must decide whether to buy fuel or food this day.
Calcium is important for growing and keeping strong bones. Vitamin D has recently been found to play a key role in preventing cancer. While this government looks at it and considers how to improve the food basket, the nutrient deficit to children and all that this means to their health and our mutual long-term costs continues.
For a year I have tried to get this government to support a new subsidy for milk in those communities where the price is 10 percent or greater than in the city of Yellowknife. Subsidizing milk is actually an investment in the health of children and seniors will pay large dividends on modest costs.
For the sake of goodness, let’s get this done. Drop the Pop, yes, but where’s the milk?
---Laughter