Food mail changes coming soon: Nunavut senator

The federal government should be unveiling a revised food mail program sometime this spring, according to Nunavut's representative in the Senate.

Conservative Senator Dennis Patterson said he has been helping to make changes to the food mail program, which subsidizes the costs of shipping nutritious food by air to remote communities across Canada's North.

The Indian and Northern Affairs Department has been reviewing the efficiency of the decades-old program, which cost the federal government almost $50 million to operate in 2008.

"Food mail will provide subsidies for essential healthy foods — and that list may have to be reviewed or revised — that will allow people and children, as well, to be properly nourished," Patterson told CBC News in an interview Monday.

"I think it's going to have an impact on the cost of living, not to mention the impact … that it will have on health."

Meanwhile, Patterson said one of his goals as senator is to help conclude devolution talks with the federal government, so that Nunavut can have more powers and responsibilities over its own affairs.

Patterson said he also supports the idea of Senate reform, as the Conservative government wants to limit the terms of senators to eight years. Currently, senators can keep working until they reach the age of 75.

Since Patterson, a former N.W.T. premier, was sworn into his new position on Sept. 15, Patterson has served as vice-chair of the Senate's fisheries and oceans committee. He also serves on the Senate committee on aboriginal peoples.