MP Brendan Hanley at the announcement in downtown Whitehorse on December 18th. Photo by Macklen Linke
Whitehorse, YT – The Government of Canada announced today the four projects that will recieve funding from the Canadian Northern Development Agency as a part of phase two of the Northern Innovation Food Challenge amidst issues of food security throughout the territories.
The challenge was started in 2021 as part of CanNor’s Northern Isolated Communities Initiative and aims to provide funding for community led and Indigenous food production systems to help improve food security across the North. MP Brendan Hanley says that the additional funding in phase two will provide further avenues for addressing food insecurity.
“We know that food security is different for each community, region, and territory. But it wasn’t enough to just support local ideas with funding,” said Hanley. “Part of this program was to put community organizations in touch with people across the North, who have knowledge that can only stand to benefit Northern and Indigenous led solutions to strengthening food security, and to work with them to refine their ideas. So in other words, to take a good idea to the next level.”
Nine projects recieved the initial funding of up to 250 thousand dollars in phase one. Hanley said that the additional 3 million dollars in funding, as part of phase two, will be distributed to four projects in hopes of allowing them to build on the previous work they’ve done.
“Each of these projects is taking a unique approach to improving the food security of their respective communities, channeling local innovation and ingenuity to get the job done,” said Hanley. “So we’re really looking forward to continuing to work with and support these four organizations.”
The phase two funding is being divided with $1,000,000 going towards strengthening harvesting food systems in Clyde River, $400,000 will go towards the Inuliqtait Country Food Program, $705,500 will go towards the Food Security, Bison Farm to Fork project and $845,000 will go to the Centralized Traditional and Local Processing Kitchen Facility.
According to a 2017 to 18 survey by the Canadian Community Health Strategy the territories lead in food insecurity with 57 per cent of respondents in Nunavut claiming food insecurity followed by 21.6 per cent in the Northwest Territories and 16.9 per cent in the Yukon.
