Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Environmental Studies (MES)
Department
Geography & Environmental Studies
Faculty/School
Faculty of Science
First Advisor
Dr. Andrew Spring
Advisor Role
Overall supervision, funding
Second Advisor
Dr. David Wheatley
Third Advisor
Carla Johnston
Abstract
Northern Indigenous communities have relied on traditional food systems for meaningful, nutritious diets since time immemorial. But many Indigenous communities in remote northern regions of Canada still face disproportionately elevated levels of food insecurity due to climate change radically altering the availability for traditional foods, colonial food policies imposing Western diets, and the high costs of transporting store-bought foods. Extreme weather events such as wildfires further isolate fly-in remote communities increasing both the costs of transporting store-bought foods and the difficulties of harvesting traditional foods. There are many examples of community-based initiatives for supporting traditional and locally grown foods, however, store-bought foods are usually neglected in these community-based food security and food sovereignty projects despite their increasing presence in northern diets. One of the many reasons for not focusing on store-bought foods, compared to traditional or grown foods, is that the majority of remote Northern communities have only one corporate-owned for-profit store that reduces the agency of community members to enact food system changes. This creates an urgent need for community-based initiatives to address simultaneously the high costs of store-bought foods and ensure that these initiatives are aligned with local visions for food sovereignty. Working with Sambaa K’e First Nation (SKFN), a Dene Nation in the Dehcho region of Denendeh (Northwest Territories, Canada), this thesis presents both a participatory action research case study and a policy change proposal for the Nutrition North Canada (NNC) retail subsidy to address the unique challenges for community-owned stores in remote Northern Indigenous communities. This study, using shop-along interviews, found that the community-owned store supported some pillars of food security, such as the availability of nutritious foods and its utilization, more than others. However, despite local efforts to reduce prices for whole foods and provide a space for free garden foods, economic access to nutritious food was mostly determined by the cost of flying in store-bought food and the failure of federal food subsidies. Through analyzing anonymized Point of Sale records that tracked purchases for two years, we show that SKFN missed out on between $56,514 and $70,910 per year in NNC retail subsidy dollars due to the current administrative barriers within the retail subsidy. This figure is the first estimate of the value of subsidies missed out by a remote, NNC eligible community. We then propose a change to the NNC retail subsidy that subsidizes air freight at a fixed rate specifically for community-owned grocery stores. This change eases the administrative burden faced by small community-owned stores and increases ordering flexibility at comparable program costs.
Recommended Citation
Subramoniam, Narayan, "Envisioning the Role of Community-owned Stores & Aligning Federal Food Policies: A Participatory Approach to Food Security and Food Sovereignty in Sambaa K’e, Denendeh (Northwest Territories, Canada)" (2026). Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive). 2855.
https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/2855
Convocation Year
2026
Convocation Season
Spring
Included in
Environmental Policy Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, Food Security Commons, Food Studies Commons, Human Geography Commons, Indigenous Studies Commons, Other Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons, Public Economics Commons, Public Policy Commons, Regional Economics Commons