[LINK] "Aglukkaq reads newspaper while Nunavut food debate flares around her"

[rfmcdonald]

I mentioned last month problems living in the Canadian North with its increased costs of transportation and decreased opportunities. One of these problems involved the very high cost of food, and the failure of a Canadian government subsidy program intended to make it affordable. Just two days ago, the Aboriginal People's Television Network--a Canadian First Nations-run network that has done its share of breaking news stories relevant to the North and First Nations--broke the story that Leona Aglukkaq, Environment Minister and Nunavut MP, was reading a newspaper as a debate on the food subsidy program and her personal reactions to the crisis.

Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq was caught on camera reading the newspaper while debate raged around her in Question Period Monday about a food crisis in Nunavut.

Aglukkaq has said she is considering legal action against Rankin Inlet’s deputy mayor Sam Tutanuak who claimed the minister tried to extract an apology during a phone conversation with the Nunavut hamlet’s senior administrative officer.

Aglukkaq has flatly denied she tried to get an apology for Tutanuak’s comments to APTN Investigates that high grocery prices in the community had forced people to scavenge for food at the local dump.

Aglukkaq’s office also denied claims from five different MPs that she yelled ‘that’s not true’ during Question Period last week when the NDP brought up the issue of Inuit searching for food in the dump.

The Auditor General of Canada released a scathing report last Monday on the management of the Harper government’s food subsidy Nutrition North program. Auditor General Michael Ferguson said Ottawa had no idea whether the program was working or if Northern grocery retailers were passing on the government subsidy for perishable foods like vegetables.

She has later apologized for reading the newspaper--APTN has a screen capture--but has defended her government's actions otherwise.