Assessing the effect of food retail subsidies on the price of food in remote Indigenous communities in Canada

• Main Authors: Naylor, Jamie, Deaton, B. James, Ker, Alan
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Subjects: Nunavut; Canada
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919220300919

The Canadian government currently subsidizes food retailers in the 25 remote communities in Nunavut through the Nutrition North Canada program. The program expects each dollar of the food subsidy to be fully passed on to the consumer in the form of lower prices. Unfortunately, existing audits and reviews of the program have failed to determine the pass-through rate of the subsidy. Using regression analysis on food price data in each of the 25 communities, subsidy rates, and covariates that control for community characteristics, we overcome the limitations of past research and provide the first-ever estimate of the pass-through rate of Nutrition North in Nunavut. Our results suggest that most, if not all, of the subsidy is passed on to the consumer in lower food prices. Food security; Nutrition North Canada; Subsidy pass-through; Isolated communities;