Beyond Churchill
The North
is vast
Churchill is one community. Across northern Canada, dozens of Indigenous and remote communities face the same reality, and many face worse.
Beyond Churchill
Churchill is one community. Across northern Canada, dozens of Indigenous and remote communities face the same reality, and many face worse.
The Bigger Picture
As isolated as Churchill is, it is far from the most remote community in northern Canada. Hundreds of communities across northern Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and the territories have no railway at all, accessible only by seasonal ice road or small aircraft. In these fly-in communities, food costs exceed even what Churchill residents pay, fresh produce is rarely available, and the nearest hospital is a medevac flight away.
Indigenous peoples are disproportionately represented in these communities. The reasons are deeply historical, rooted in displacement from traditional lands, the erosion of traditional food systems, and decades of underinvestment in remote community infrastructure that continues to this day.
The Numbers
Indigenous Communities
The following are some of the First Nations communities in the Churchill region and broader northern Manitoba. This is not a complete list — MKO alone represents 26 First Nations across the region. Each community has a distinct history, culture, and relationship to the land, and each has been affected by food insecurity in different ways.
In 1956, the federal government forcibly relocated the Sayisi Dene from their traditional homeland at Little Duck Lake to the outskirts of Churchill. Nearly one-third of the community died as a result. Survivors eventually returned to the land, establishing Tadoule Lake in 1973. Canada formally apologized in 2016.
Located near Split Lake in northern Manitoba, Tataskweyak Cree Nation was profoundly affected by Manitoba Hydro's damming of the Churchill and Nelson rivers, which flooded traditional lands and disrupted fishing and trapping, key sources of traditional food.
During the 2017 rail washout, Fox Lake Cree Nation partnered with Polar Industries and local businesses to build a 300 km ice road to Churchill, demonstrating the community leadership and resilience that defines northern Indigenous communities.
Located in northern Ontario, Neskantaga has been under a boil water advisory since 1995, over 30 years. This fly-in community of roughly 400 people has never had safe tap water in the lifetime of anyone under 30. A new treatment plant is still pending full funding.
Near Nelson House, this community runs one of Canada's most successful country foods programs, paying traditional hunters and fishers to fill community freezers with moose, fish, bison, and geese, distributed free to elders, single parents, and those in need.
MKO represents 26 First Nations in northern Manitoba and over 72,000 people. Through their Harvester Program, MKO funds traditional hunters to provide country food to communities, preserving both food security and cultural connection to the land.
Historical Context
Food insecurity in northern Indigenous communities has deep historical roots. The Indian Act of 1876 confined First Nations to reserves on marginal land, restricted movement, and prevented communities from owning land or building economic independence. Over the decades that followed, traditional food systems were further disrupted through policies that banned hunting and fishing practices, conducted nutritional experiments on residential school children without consent, and relocated communities away from their food sources.
Central to that history is the residential school system, which operated until 1996 and removed approximately 150,000 Indigenous children from their families. In doing so, it severed the transmission of traditional food knowledge, harvesting skills, and cultural practices across generations. The impacts are still felt today in the form of intergenerational trauma, disconnection from the land, and ongoing food insecurity.
Northern food insecurity is a product of history as much as geography. Policy decisions made over more than a century have shaped the conditions that northern communities live with today.
Food Sovereignty
Traditional foods, obtained through hunting, fishing, trapping, and gathering, are deeply connected to spirituality, community, and cultural identity. Sharing food is a cultural practice as much as a practical one.
The Indigenous Food Sovereignty movement centres the right of Indigenous peoples to define their own food systems, to hunt, fish, and harvest according to their own cultural values, on their own lands, without interference from regulations designed without their input.
"Food sovereignty speaks to the rights of MKO First Nations to sustainably meet our food needs in accordance with our customary food preferences and harvesting practices from our traditional territories."
— Grand Chief Garrison Settee, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, testimony before ParliamentPolicy & Government
In 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to end all long-term drinking water advisories on First Nations reserves by March 2021. That deadline passed with 59 still active. As of early 2026, around 40 remain. Neskantaga First Nation has been under a boil water advisory for over 30 years.
The federal Nutrition North Canada program, launched in 2011, provides per-kilogram subsidies on food shipped by air to 124 isolated communities. Churchill does not normally qualify because it has rail access. The program has faced persistent criticism. The Auditor General found in 2014 that it was "not managed to meet its objective," and research found food insecurity rates in subsidized communities actually increased after the program launched.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 94 Calls to Action, , released in 2015, include specific demands to close health and food security gaps. As of 2025, only 13 to 15 have been fully completed.
Since 2018, the Hudson Bay Railway has been owned by the Arctic Gateway Group, a partnership of Indigenous and northern communities including 29 First Nations. Ownership of the railway now rests with the communities it serves. Beyond infrastructure, community-led projects such as the Nisichawayasihk Country Foods Program, the Rocket Greens hydroponic farm, and the Wiiche'iwaymagon Buying Alliance are examples of efforts to address food insecurity.
Next Steps
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