July 14, 2000
JANE GEORGE
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT — A new study confirms what everybody living in Nunavik pretty much already knows – that it’s not cheap to buy the basics of life in the region, and keep a roof over your head at the same time.
The report, called Nunavik Comparative Price Index, was prepared by Laval University’s circumpolar study institute, Gétic.
It shows that while rents for social housing and a few other items cost less than what people in the southern Quebec normally pay, these few bargains help Nunavimmiut afford the other necessities of life. Some of these cost two or three times more in Nunavik than in southern Quebec.
"The cost of housing undeniably helps Nunavik’s inhabitants cope with the higher prices found for almost all other product categories," concludes the report.
The research, sponsored, among others, by the Kativik Regional Government and Quebec’s Housing Bureau, the Société d’Habitation du Québec, wanted to see whether or not there could be any justification for raising Nunavik’s reasonable social housing rents.
Rents for social housing in Nunavik are as much as 48 per cent lower than what Quebec City residents pay for the same kind of accommodations. Around 80 per cent of Nunavik residents still live in social housing units, while other residents live mainly in subsidized housing.
The cost of building and maintaining new houses in Nunavik is, thanks to subsidies to encourage home ownership, about the same as in the South.
But these lower or equivalent prices for housing offset some of the remarkable differences for other basics that Gétic sets out in the report. Overall, the price for a basket of 202 food articles found in the grocery stores of Nunavik is 69 per cent higher than in the Quebec City area.
"For example, a kilogram of lean ground beef is sold [at] an average of $7.95 in the grocery stores in Nunavik, compared to $5.52 in the Quebec City area. This makes for a 44.1 per cent difference between the two regions, yet in Nunavik this product is sold frozen, which is the case with most meat products sold in Nunavik except in Kuujjuaq," the report says.
Potatoes are a whopping $7.18 for a 10-pound bag, compared to $2.46 in the South. Other striking examples of cost differences between Nunavik and the South are found in the prices of toilet paper ($6.75 for eight rolls versus $3.79), detergent ($10.03 for 2 kg. versus $5.29), and bleach ($5.39 for a jug versus $1.76).
A case of 24 cans of Coke or a can of soup is more that three times as expensive in Nunavik than in southern Quebec.
Personal care or hygiene items also cost much more in Nunavik.
"For example, a tube of Crest Regular Toothpaste (75 ml) costs an average of $2.06 in the North, while the average cost in the South is $1.06, which represents a difference of 94.8%," says the report.
The report notes the cooperative stores’ policy of equal pricing for every community somewhat reduces the differences between Nunavik’s communities.
But that doesn’t change the fact that camping equipment you’d pay $37 for in Quebec City will set you back $50 in Nunavik.
Nunavik’s larger families and a lower average income than in southern Quebec also mean Nunavimmiut have to stretch less money more.
The report concludes "the cost of living is most probably higher in Nunavik than in the rest of the province of Quebec."