Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues. The motion speaks specifically to the Auditor General. The Auditor General of Canada has the authority to obtain and review all documents and information necessary for its preparation for this report, should it be accepted by them. More importantly, this report will provide proper recommendations that will be fair, accurate,
and give Northerners the confidence that this audit will be just and that they know where the money is going.
This audit will show us where the subsidies are being followed. If you go to the Northern Store or the Co-op, you would follow your money and this is what the audit will do. It’s following the money. Who gets it, who spends it and where does it go, and that’s what the audit is calling for.
I have letters from the residents of the Sahtu in regard to the Nutrition North Program versus the old Food Mail Program. One of the disappointing issues of this program is that people in Yellowknife now, because they were serving the people in my region through the Co-op or the Extra Foods or other stores, no longer can participate in this program. It’s just bureaucratic red tape and people in the Sahtu are frustrated because they can’t get their foods any cheaper now, except going into one store. It’s forced them into one store: the Northern Store.
Even the former public service says the federal government is trying to make the Nutrition North Program look like it’s working better than choosing unrepresentative baseline prices. So even an old federal government bureaucrat is saying something is wrong with this program.
We’ve got the Nunavut government, now our Government of the Northwest Territories and the Yukon government telling the program that something is wrong. I think that is a strong signal saying that there is something wrong with the program. It’s like telling a monkey it has three tails. One government tells it, it doesn’t pay attention, but if three governments are telling this monkey it has three tails, then it might look and say yes. So that’s what this motion is saying.
The Auditor General needs to look at this. This program is not serving the needs of our people in the Northwest Territories. I do applaud the Members for supporting this and I will be asking for a recorded vote. Thank you for allowing me to put forward this motion.