Dialogue lacking in federal food talks: critics

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This article was published 07/09/2017 (2963 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — A Winnipeg group is holding a public meeting Thursday on access to affordable food, amid concerns Ottawa isn’t hearing from enough people directly affected by the issue.

Ottawa is designing Canada’s first national food policy, aimed at co-ordinating access to affordable, nutritious food that is made sustainably. It is a sweeping reform involving multiple departments — and only four months of consultation.

“The timeframes have been short and the turnaround has left very little room for planning,” Rob Moquin, policy manager for Food Matters Manitoba, said. “There’s going to be a lot of people who have some really good input that aren’t going to be at these federal sessions.”

On May 29, the feds invited Canadians to complete an online survey within two months, before extending it to August. They also announced six cross-country sessions and a summit in Ottawa.

The Free Press has learned Ottawa will hold a closed-door consultation Sept. 29 in Winnipeg and federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay is set to attend.

Moquin says his group is holding a public meeting (5 p.m. at Winnipeg Harvest, 1085 Winnipeg Ave.) to hear from people who won’t be there.

“I don’t know that there’s going to be much room for the general public, or people who have lived experience of food insecurity, let’s say, to have a voice at that table.”

According to Food Banks Canada data, 61,914 Manitobans (4.75 per cent of the provincial population) were assisted by food banks last year, a 53 per cent jump since 2008.

A 2011 cross-Canada study found roughly 12.4 per cent of Manitoba households (excluding First Nations reserves) experienced “food insecurity,” meaning a lack of physical or economic access to safe, nutritious food to meet their dietary needs.

That includes everything from people in Winnipeg who tightly budget to afford groceries, to people in rural towns who are skipping meals because their local store closed, to those in northern areas relying on flown-in food.

On Aug. 29, Moquin’s group held a public meeting 9 in Wabowden, between The Pas and Thompson.

The roughly dozen attendees mostly praised the Northern Healthy Foods Initiative, a provincial program that helps people learn how to build greenhouses and chicken coops.

Attendees contrasted that with the Nutrition North Canada program, a federal subsidy that lowers the cost of flying groceries to remote supermarkets. “There’s a general feeling that northern food issues aren’t being adequately addressed by the federal programs,” Moquin said.

Another frequent theme was the prevalence of obesity and diabetes in the North. “A lot of time the discussion is about physical activity, so we don’t hear a lot about traditional and northern food ways, as a way to mitigate those problems,” said Moquin.

Diana Bronson, executive director of Food Secure Canada, says MPs and groups across the country are trying to hold similar town halls, to make sure those who have used food banks are reflected in the new policy. Ottawa needs responses by Sept. 30.

“It’s been a bit breathless to try and respond to government deadlines,” she said, noting many low-income people don’t have the resources to complete an online survey. “We need to hear from people who are having trouble accessing food on the ground.”

Agriculture Department spokesman Patrick Girard said more than 40,000 people participated in the online survey, which included questions about whether they’d recently experienced food insecurity.

Bronson and Moquin say Ottawa’s closed-door meetings should have public attendance lists, so people know industry groups aren’t over-represented.

On request, the Agriculture Department provided the Free Press with the attendance list of two of its closed-door meetings from last month, as well as the Ottawa summit. Both meetings show a mix of groups, with about two-thirds representing industry groups and the rest encompassing advocates, researchers and Indigenous groups.

Girard said his department holds the meetings in private, “to create an environment supportive of frank conversations. Participants are free to share their session experiences publicly.”

The government also held a June 22-23 policy summit in Ottawa, where almost 300 researchers and advocates talked about food issues. Bronson and Moquin said bureaucrats at the summit seemed receptive to their ideas, but many non-profits had just two weeks’ notice about the event, and struggled to attend.

“For a consultation that is aiming to rethink Canada’s food system and how we can better manage it, a couple of months isn’t enough,” said Bronson.

That’s why Moquin hopes Manitobans tell Ottawa about their experience with healthy, affordable food.

“A food policy for Canada is unprecedented, so the more voices we can have at the table, the better.”

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca

 

Food-policy consultation attendance lists