Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak is pushing back against Canada’s new National Food Security Strategy, saying St. Theresa Point and other northern First Nations will be left without the help they need to fight a hunger crisis that is nearly 46 percent worse than the Manitoba average. The group released a formal statement on June 16, 2026, just days after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the more than $3-billion plan on June 11.
The federal strategy includes $750 million to grow fruits and vegetables year-round in rural and northern communities, with $100 million carved out for the North. MKO says that amount is not enough and misses the mark because it does not set aside money specifically for First Nations. “A food-secure North means a food-secure Canada. First Nations cannot be left out of this equation,” Grand Chief Garrison Settee said in the statement. “Today, northern First Nations families pay more for food, receive less nutritious options, and face disproportionately high levels of food insecurity due to inequitable investment in their communities. This reality is unacceptable.”
The gap is growing. At the MKO Foodbank in Thompson, demand jumped to 5,818 food packages in the 2025-2026 fiscal year, up from 4,849 the year before. Catherine Helgason, the food bank supervisor, recorded the increase as more families struggled to afford basic groceries.
St. Theresa Point, a fly-in community about 650 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, shows why. Reachable only by air or a seasonal ice road open about six weeks a year, the roughly 4,500 residents face grocery prices that shock outsiders. A small jar of pickles costs $12.49 and a four-litre jug of milk runs about $10, even with the federal Nutrition North subsidy. The newly elected Chief, Elvin Flett, who took office on March 25, 2026, now leads a community where a power outage in October 2023 wiped out months of stored food, including wild meat and berries harvested for winter.
Emergency help has been arriving. Harvest Manitoba has been flying in food monthly to St. Theresa Point and three other Island Lake communities for more than a year, delivering approximately 120,000 pounds of food in total, using the Nutrition North subsidy to offset costs. Vince Barletta, the organization’s president and CEO, called the subsidy a game changer, but added that food banks are a temporary fix, not a long-term answer. MKO maintains that dedicated funding in the federal strategy is the only way to close the gap for good.
