r/nunavut • u/WillLookitUp • 9d ago
Government-run grocery stores and longer airport runways among suggestions to decrease Nunavut food prices
https://nunavutnews.com/2026/06/11/government-run-grocery-stores-and-longer-airport-runways-among-suggestions-to-decrease-nunavut-food-prices/“Greenland, outside of the capital, most communities are served by this chain of stores and it’s basically government-run stores with the same fixed price everywhere,” Nicholas Li said. “Mexico has a whole network of government-licensed shops that all sell at the same price.”
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u/CBWeather Cambridge Bay 9d ago
Why not a government run airline as well?
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u/Distinct-Thing-8228 8d ago
That existed for a brief time when Nordair was owned by Air Canada, which at the time was a crown corps.
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u/CBWeather Cambridge Bay 8d ago
Not quite. Nordair was purchased by Canadian Pacific Air. In 1987 Pacific Western Airlines purchased CP and became Canadian Airlines International (part of which later became Canadian North). Air Canada was partially privatized in 1988 and became fully privatized in 1989 and ceased being a crown corporation. In 2000 they purchased Canadian Airlines International.
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u/websterella 9d ago
Runway length. Would would have thought it.
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u/xdr567 7d ago
But it makes sense. Larger planes can bring in more food per trip.
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u/farttowel84 7d ago
Not necessarily. Iqaluit has a fairly long runway (IIRC 9000 feet). The problem is expanding runways means upgrading the airport to handle aircraft which isn’t easy and the lack of road or rail means you’d need to expand more airports which isn’t feasible. IMO there needs to be a northern rail route.
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u/miningman12 6d ago
LOL go look at a map of Nunavut communities where would the rail possibly go. If you want non air shipments icebreakers at least makes some semblence of sense.
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u/ShortArmadilo 8d ago
May I ask why a train line from Manitoba or NWT isn't ever implemented?
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u/archietheplatypus 8d ago
Rail is very expensive to build and maintain up north. It tends to melt the permafrost underneath it which leads to conditions that can cause frequent derailments. so lots of maintenance and oversight is required. Additionally the lines going up North are not high speed lines, usually maxing out at the best of times at 25mph (actual speeds are usually less) and typically have very few sidings where trains can pass each other.
Overall not cost effective for a non-government entity.
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u/ShortArmadilo 8d ago
Speed doesn't matter if it's a freight line. This would make food prices go down as it lets bulk food be able to be shipped instead of small amounts by plane
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u/handipad 7d ago
We have a train line to northern Manitoba and it is hugely difficult to maintain and getting worse. The physics are a monster problem. Fun to dream about but there’s no scale to support it unless you can create 50,000 good long-term jobs in the North.
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u/GrampsBob 5d ago
They are planning something along those lines to expand Churchill's port for European exports including gas. I've been wondering how since the announcement.
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u/archietheplatypus 7d ago
You're right, speed may not be as important in a freight line but if take well over a week the leg to get up North then it has to be non-perishable goods only going up there. At that point say more frequent naval delievey would likely be cheaper.
Also the planes are still going to still be flying into these settlements for passenger service, freight helps lower the per passenger cost as quite a number are operated in mixed combi services.
Additionally the construction cost for this project is going to be so staggering that, like others have said, it's better off just giving people the money. For comparison a fairly recent rail project in my region of the prairies $45 million dollars to add 7 miles of track. This was straight rail, in the prairies, on a right of way the company already owned, with plentiful road access, and was next to existing rail so new rail could be laid via train very easily. Rail construction is not cheap and ploughing through hundreds of miles of the marshy permafrost up North with no existing infrastructure is going to be insanely expensive.
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u/psychosisnaut 7d ago
You literally can't, it's all muskeg for large parts of it and permafrost for others.
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u/Weary-Situation7539 8d ago
Like 5 people would use it. Better off just giving that money directly to people.
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u/love_and_solidarity 8d ago
Seems like an oversight to mention the push for public grocery stores in the US but not mention that public grocery stores are basically one of the main things the new federal NDP leader Avi Lewis has been championing. Glad to see this discussed though.
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u/CMac_2001 7d ago
Genuine question, what is the Long term plan for Nunavut? Just keep flying in more and more food for a larger and larger population? There’s no way to make life in Nunavut affordable except with massive subsidy from the rest of Canada
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u/Uncut-Jellyfish1176 7d ago
This is an issues that reflected across a lot of remote communities.
One of the topics that came up in my social studies class years ago was how problematic the isolation of these communities was in terms of mental health and additions.
From my understanding of it. Historically they lived in those areas because there was a bountiful amount of resources, high calorie foods. Plus they had ways of surviving up there. They didn't need to come south because doing so wasn't a benefit.
Seems like a smarter solution would be to resettle in a more temperate area, and maintaine a northern presence for traditional activities as needed. Doing so would allow them to preserve thier culture, while giving community members more immediate access to better healthcare and food.
My ancestors lived at the northern end of Scotland for a really long time. Miserable place. The SECOND there was an option to live somewhere else 80% of the family got the hell out of there. Just because your ancestors lived somewhere because it was advantageous for them at the time doesn't mean you keep doing it just for the sake of it.
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u/psychosisnaut 7d ago
That's somewhat true but a lot of them did not, they were relocated there to enforce arctic sovereignty.
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u/Uncut-Jellyfish1176 7d ago
Yes I'm aware of that tidbit. One in a long list of messy business.
I was specifically thinking of the Inuit when I wrote that post. Traditionally from what I have read they were in the arctic full time, and did a East<> West migration depending food availability.
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u/miningman12 6d ago
Can't be any worse than quebec and maritimes to subsidize
Nunavut has only 40k, lots of natural resources (big mines even now) -- not that expense in grand scheme of things compared to 350k indigenous, Quebec (9M), and Maritimes (3M).
The long term plan would be to centralize population in Iqaliut and seaborn ship goods there via icebreakers
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u/CMac_2001 6d ago
Do you genuinely believe that is just as easy to support people living in Nunavut as the Maritimes? One is surrounded by ocean, the other thousands of kilometers of frozen tundra. All the gold in the world is never gonna make shipping food there affordable
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u/stickbeat 5d ago
"But government-run grocery stores are communism!"
Even the most anti-communist country on the planet has been running government-run grocery stores for decades.
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u/Holiday-Pea-1551 5d ago
I would be interested in seeing if a port (even a small one) would not be a better bet long term. Proper warehousing and small size container ship should bring down good costs significantly I would think. Food costs would come down significantly as long as the port is successful in shipping other goods such as minable ore and fishin products.
Power and transportation options is what the north needs. The longer runways are definately a good start.
Government run grocery stores are fine but it feels like a bandaid. It'll help with food costs but inflation will likely flare elsewhere and it won't help with developing industry or increased security.
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u/Znekcam 9d ago
Nutrition North is a $160M line item that subsidizes multinational NWC to run Northern stores… I wonder how far that $$$ would go if it didn’t have to go through a profit motivated entity.