The territory of Nunavut has no surface roads to the lower provinces. This means everything has to be shipped in, either by air or by boat, during the limited summer months I had heard about the cost of food and the issues surrounding food insecurity in the northern territory. Although I have done many travels, it is always sobering to see the reality of costs for simple groceries firsthand in isolated locations. My visit to the local grocery store in Nunavut showcased this point tremendously.

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Shopping Costs in Iqaluit: A Deep Dive into the Cost of Shopping in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada.

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Iqaluit is an inexpensive city. With no surface ground roads to the lower Canadian provinces, everything has to be either flown into Iqaluit by air, or moved in by boat during the short summer months. This makes all food and consumable items very expensive.

Having heard about the expensive food costs, I wanted to go sample this for myself.

About Shopping in Nunavut Territory:

The Government of the Territories of Nunavut and the Government of Canada subsidize some of the food that enters Nunavut through the Nutrition North Canada program. This means that food that has nutritious value gets a gonverment subsidy that makes it more cost effective to eat.

The program splits food into three categories of low, medium and high subsidy. The low category offers toilet paper, canned fish and vegetables, soap, shampoo, hand sanitizer and laundry detergent. The medium category offers fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, meat, tofu and bread, along with rice and pasta. Lastly, the high subsidy offers frozen vegetables and fruits, fresh milk and infant formula.

This structure incentives peoples to purchase healthier food with costs that are mostly comparable to what you might expect in the lower provinces.

Shopping in Iqaluit at Northmart:

There aren’t many grocery stores in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada. The community is served by the common North Mart along with the more upscale Inuulisautinut Niuvirvikmarket. Since North Mart has the most locations across Nunavut, I stopped by North Mart in Iqaluit to get the most common shopping experience.

I wandered through the shopping aisles in Northmart. There is always a bit of sticker shock when it comes to the price of things. With everything being shipped up by air, there prices escalate quickly when items are larger or bulkier. All these prices are in Canadian dollars.

I started off by seeing the usual shake and bake for $13.99 CAD along with Heinz ketchup for $32.99 CAD. I love ketchup, but I’m not sure if I would be paying that much to enjoy that wonderful tomato sauce.

Even my beloved cheddar cheese was $21.49 CAD. My usual large Tropicana orange juice was $23.29 CAD.

Even a simple tin of Campbell’s chicken noodle soup is $5.59. I regularly buy this at home in Vancouver BC for about $1.50. This meant that it was almost 4 times the price.

My usual household Ocean Spray cranberry juice was $17.19 CAD along with that old favourite Chef Boyardee being $7.99 CAD.

Perhaps most expensive was McDonald’s McCafé coffee. A tin was running for $45.79 CAD. Yikes.

I had a hard time getting over the price of bottled water. A regular Aquafina one and a half litre bottle was running at $11.59 CAD. This was about 10 times the price of gasoline at the local pump.

A small container of basil margarine was running for $16.99 CAD. At this price, if I happen to live up here, I’d be using an air fryer to cook, avoiding margarine as a cooking oil.

In the most expensive “no subsidy” category were sweets and junk food. While I love a good dessert every now and then, I would have to seriously be coming back on the supplies for my grocery bin. Chapman’s ice cream was running at about $20 a container.

Even a single pop was running at about eight dollars a single unit bottle. I would have to switch to a soda stream alternative.

It was quite a sticker shock walking through the North Mart in Iqlauit. I ended up picking up a bottle of water that cost me almost an hour worth of minimum wages in the lower provinces.

I didn’t have a bigger shopping bill than this, but still paying $10 for water stung the wallet.

My Thoughts on Shopping in Nunavut:

Living or visiting Nunavut will result in some sticker shock when it comes to grocery shopping. Even when visiting for just a weekend, it was easy to see the costs could add up very quickly.

The most expensive costs will be for food that is not subsidized through the Nutrition North Canada food program. Specifically, junk food and other sweet and sugary foods, will cost the most. There will be a subsidy on most food and vegetables, regardless of the whether they are fresh or frozen.

If you end up living or taking employment up in Iqaluit, Nunavut, make sure your travel benefits and entitlements cover this additional expense.

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If you’ve purchase food in Iqaluit, are there any tips and tricks to keep the costs down ?

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