Case study: implementing nutrition in North Canada

This post was written by Stephen M. Van Dine, senior vice president at the Institute of Governance, Canada

What was the problem?

Despite advance planning and preparation - the changeover of a "Soviet Era" food mail programme administered by Canadian Post to a modern grocery supply chain approach to reduce the price of healthy food choices - the shift created a number of unintended consequences. There were three problems:

1. It became the lightning rod for larger endemic food security issues.

2. It created perceptions that businesses were enjoying excessive profits.

3. The inner workings of supply-chain economics were difficult to explain and made more complicated by seasonal dependence on the summer sea-lift to remote communities.

What was done to solve the problem?

The programme implementation challenges were documented and assessed at regular intervals. Public attention to the programme translated into political interest to 'make the programme work the way it was intended'. A three part strategy was employed:

1. Active and responsive communications

2. Programme adjustments

3. Increased transparency and proactive evaluations

Each component ran in parallel and reinforced one another. On communications, the burden shifted from the minister to departmental officials to explain the mechanics of the programme. Adjustments were evidenced-based on programme data and internal and external evaluations.

What was learned?

A number of lessons were learned. The original food mail programme was defined too narrowly as a cost of transportation problem. A wider environmental scan would have revealed the ties to culture, income inequality and underlying complexity of food insecurity. Nevertheless, a reliance on data, commitment to transparency and a willingness to make adjustments meant the programme is now 10 years in existence and continuing to provide northern and remote communities with fresh and perishable foods at a much lower price than they would otherwise be.

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