Thursday, December 4, 2014
On November 25, the 2014 Fall Report of the Auditor General of Canada was released.
The audit includes a chapter on the Nutrition North Canada program.
The purpose of the audit was to determine whether Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) has managed the Nutrition North Canada program:
- To meet its objective of making healthy foods more accessible and affordable to residents of isolated northern communities
- To obtain the information required to allow it to demonstrate that the full subsidy is being passed on to consumers
The audit found that AANDC:
- Has not done enough to meet the objective of making healthy foods more accessible and affordable to residents of isolated northern communities
- Has not done the work necessary to verify that northern retailers are passing on to consumers the full government subsidy on eligible foods
- If [AANDC] was able to verify that this was the case, some of the public skepticism surrounding the Nutrition North Program could be lessened. This would benefit the [AANDC], northern retailers and the residents of Canada’s northern territories
