Good for food, bad for The North

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, NWT Premier Bob McLeod, Yukon’s Premier Darrel Pasloski, and Nunavut’s Premier Peter Tapuna; plus the $5.69 loaf of bread in Tapuna’s backyard, have all drawn attention to the far north in recent weeks.

The Prime Minister and the three premiers have all made headlines over travel expenses, or for the miserable prospects their jurisdictions offer the mining industry respectively, but the one item (the $5.69 loaf of bread) is what caught the nation’s attention when it made the nightly news from coast to coast.

People in the far north are outraged at the cost of living there and now the rest of country is fascinated by hearing that bread costs so much, and that butter to put on that bread goes for $7.49 a pound and to wash it down, a 3L jug of orange juice sells for $19.29 and a 2L jug of milk is $14.00.

Most people in Canada pay far, far less but in fairness to the suppliers and distributors of these products, most of their customers do not live where it takes an army of people and machines to deliver the goods.

Getting food and other supplies to many places north of the 60th parallel is not only a logistical nightmare, but it’s also extremely dangerous. So much so, in fact, that pilots and truckers are the true and unsung heroes when it comes to keeping the North alive.

I’ve said it here before and I’ll say it again, I admire the people who live in the far and often-frozen northern regions of Canada, but I also think the people who are trying to develop those regions into a viable and economically sustaining part of the country are doing more for its future than those who actually call it ‘home.’

Without the interest and investment by companies from the South, and increasingly from farther East and West, the development of Canada’s North, albeit too slow for my liking, would still be in the planning stages and out of sight and mind of the rest of the country.

I’m not saying that the exorbitant price of bread and other foods is a good thing, but it did grab the attention of the rest of Canada and made people realize that there is life North of the Tree Line, and that there’s actually something going on up there.

Like I said earlier, it’s a credit to the investors from elsewhere who look North and it’s time that the Prime Minister and the Premiers work as a team (not as individuals) to develop a theme that would bring more attention to the value and hidden resources contained within the largest part of Canada.

If the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball League can adapt a “We The North” slogan that has brought attention to Toronto as being “The North,” surely the federal government, along with Yukon, NWT and Nunavut, can come up with something equally catchy that would bring the world’s attention to the lands North of 60.

The slogan “Land of Opportunity” has been coined around the world and there’s no question about what the message is, but I think that Canada needs something new and  equally unquestionable in its message about its North lands and what they offer.

“Keep frozen until ready to serve” is something that Mother Nature has taken care of insofar as the “keep frozen” part is concerned, but now it’s the government(s) turn to spread the “ready to serve” message.