Don't know if this is the right place to post this, but it needs to be seen and shared!

[madmom]

This is freaking outrageous!

http://grist.org/list/28-cabbage-65-chicken-and-other-insane-food-prices-in-northern-canada-2/

Nunavut is the edge of the world in a lot of ways — it’s the farthest-north part of Canada, a broken-up spray of frozen land coming off the top of the country like a very icy mohawk. In terms of land mass, it’s bigger than any other Canadian province or territory, with an area the size of Western Europe, but its population (mostly Inuit) is smaller than Berkeley’s — and I mean the university, not the town.

So it’s remote, and cold, and sparsely settled, but none of that really explains why food is so outrageously expensive that the basic necessities of life are beyond normal people’s reach. Now, the locals are starting to get fed up (not literally, because they can’t afford it), and they’re agitating for government attention to their unsustainable cost of living. Cabbage that costs $28? Chicken for $65 a pound? They’re having Nunavut. (Sorry.) (Not sorry.)...

...It’s not just food, either — necessary sundries like diapers and sanitary napkins are also outrageously expensive. According to one comment on the Facebook group, it’s often more cost-effective to fly to Edmonton, Alberta, do your shopping there, and fly home. (That alone is a pretty good indication that shipping costs are not exclusively to blame.) Meanwhile, a family of four on social assistance in Nunavut would get about $275 to $325 a week for food...

...


There are links on ways to help...please do if possible or at least share this far and wide.

[madmom]

1. WOW 155 views and not 1 comment?

[laundry_queen]

2. Private companies figuratively rape people in the north

when it comes to prices. When I moved 'up north' (which wasn't even in the territories, it was just a remote northern area of a province near the NWT border) I was shocked at the prices. A friend of mine who managed a grocery store in a close-by town told us it was nearly all mark up and price gouging - because they didn't even charge that much more to ship there than to ship to, say, Edmonton. The shipping cost would have made a 2%-5% price difference. We were paying double to triple for certain things. I remember paying $17 for a small bunch of grapes. And that was 14 years ago. And, again, that wasn't even in the territories. I can only imagine. We *did* get a tax rebate from the government for living so far north, and also, where I lived, there were plenty of very well paying jobs to offset the costs. However, those jobs don't really exist in Nunavut.

This is nothing more than the grocery companies price gouging. Usually there is only 1 store in town, and it's part of a small chain that has small stores all over the north and they all price gouge and use the excuse that they HAVE to because shipping charges (which we all know is false). There should be a government control that mark up can only be a certain percentage above what prices in the big cities are. It would probably be more cost effective for people to order their own groceries through the mail (I've done that for staples, it's way cheaper). Or start a co-op. Screw the companies that are price gouging.

[Meiko]

3. The problem with these

remote areas is that everything needs to be flown in. Are there any roads at all that go to this location? If everything is flown in the people are forced to pay whatever a private air freight company wants to charge, and it isn't cheap. From what I have read Nunavut covers a rather large area yet is very sparsely populated. Even if there are some roads it is still very costly to ship goods and fluctuating fuel prices don't help.

It looks like the government is going to have to subsidize the area.

[rhett o rick]

4. k

[laundry_queen]

5. kick nt

[Blue_In_AK]

6. We have these same issues in Western Alaska Native villages.

The costs for food and energy out there are horrendous. It's bad in Alaska in general, but at least here on the road system we can manage. Out there people have to travel many miles sometimes to the nearest grocery store by snowmachine in the winter (at subzero) and then pay $10 for a gallon of milk or a dozen eggs. And the gasoline costs over $10 a gallon in some places. It's really an awful situation.


ed. Not to mention the cost of fuel oil to heat their homes.