Retailers should show savings on receipts, says Nutrition North board

Nutrition North's advisory board says new technology at grocery store checkoutswill give consumers the transparency they are demanding.

The advisory board made the statementat a public meeting in Iqaluit Thursdaynight. One of the major concerns raised in the auditorgeneral's report last fall was about transparency and accountability with the Nutrition North program.

Nellie Cournoyea, a member of the board, says the savings at the grocery checkout aren't clear to the average shopper.

"What people want to know, they want to be clear if they're actually getting the subsidy that the government has allocated to their community."

That'swhy the advisory board is now pushing to have retailers print receiptssaying exactly how much money customers saved on their purchases through the shipping subsidy.

"Before it's just a little thing on the shelf that says 'you save that,' it doesn't mean anything," said Danielle Medina, a member of the advisory board.

Technology required

Medina said retailers are making the changedespite some technological difficulties.

"The retailers are paying for the implementation, not the government, so it shows their participation and it shows the transparency," said Medina.

TheFdrationdescooprativesduNouveau-QubecinNunavikstarted issuing those kinds of receipts this week.

Iqaluit-Tasiluk MLA George Hickes said pushing for more informative receipts isa step in the right directionbut it doesn't reveal the full calculation of costs for each retailer.

"It still goes back to the original question of how do they calculate the price of the pre-Nutrition North cost," he said.

"What kind of profit margin is built into that price?"

He said the information should also be used to give Nutrition North a benchmark of what foods cost in a given community.