Labrador residents say ‘inhumane’ food prices force families to go hungry

Some residents believe that grocery stores in Nain, the northernmost community in Labrador, are gouging customers, even though these stores take government subsidies.

A mother in a community where the cost of living is one of the highest in the country says grocery prices are “inhumane” and retailers are putting profits ahead of people’s basic human right to food.

Rosie Harris lives in a blended family with seven children in Nain, the northernmost community in Labrador. She and her husband have three jobs between them — it’s the only way they can afford enough food to feed the entire family, she said.

Last winter, when they had just two sources of income, they regularly skipped meals so their children could eat, Harris said.

She still feels anxious some mornings when she reaches for a slice of toast, like she’s taking something from her family.

“It was hard getting back into a routine of, ‘You can have breakfast and supper, you can have a snack.’ It’s almost like I’m traumatized,” Harris said in a recent interview.

“I don’t know how they would expect those prices to be OK.”

Nain is home to about 1,200 people, and it is one of five fly-in Inuit communities along Labrador’s north coast. As of 2021, the cost of food in Nain was the highest among the remote northern Canadian communities where retail companies qualify for subsidies through the federal Nutrition North Canada program.

The estimated cost of a basket of healthy food to feed a family of four in Nain shot up by nearly 62 per cent between 2011 and 2021, according to data from the program. It’s the highest spike among the reporting communities. The figure is a stark contrast from the other northern communities that qualify for the subsidy, where the average price of food actually dropped by two per cent over that period, data show.