Resolute Bay has the cheapest groceries in the territory, according to a Government of Nunavut study.
In Nunavut, the average grocery haul is $198.75, but in Resolute Bay those same items go for $165.83.
The community of 183 people only has one grocery store, the Tudjaat Co-op, where prices are 16.59 per cent below the territorial average.
Matt Teed, a former manager at the Tudjaat Co-op from 2012 to 2014, said Resolute Bay gets higher Nutrition North subsidies than some other communities because it’s more remote.
“The more isolated the location, higher subsidies,” Teed said of the federal program for groceries.
Teed, who has been a manager at Co-ops and Northern stores owned by The North West Company, said Co-ops and Northern stores have the same prices when they operate in the same community.
Only one store booking space on sealift and cargo planes frees up space and drives down costs, while a resupply flight from Thompson, Man. also helps, according to Duane Wilson, vice-president of stakeholder relations at Arctic Co-operatives.
“The Co-op in Resolute Bay doesn’t have any competition. I know that, in a southern context, there’s this perception that competition breeds lower prices. But in the North, where scale is a massive challenge, you got to keep in mind the goal of a cooperative is to provide service to its members. Its goal isn’t to maximize profits,” Wilson said. “They have the choice to price with a social outcome in mind to reduce food insecurity.”
However, other communities in Nunavut that only have a Co-op don’t share Resolute Bay’s low grocery prices.
Nearby Grise Fiord has the territory’s third-highest grocery prices while Whale Cove has closer to the average, and both of those places only have a Co-op store.
That’s because Resolute Bay enjoys an expedited shipping route from Thompson, via Calm Air, said Wilson.
From Resolute Bay, groceries are transported to Grise Fiord by Twin Otter aircraft with limited capacity, operated by Kenn Borek Air.
“The prices of that lane are very, very high because the scheduled service doesn’t really meet the needs of the community, so we’re regularly having to get an extra section [on the plane],” Wilson said.
Since 2013, High Arctic communities like Resolute Bay, Pond Inlet and Arctic Bay have had their food flown in by Calm Air from Thompson.
In years prior, food had been delivered from Val-D’or, Que., to Iqaluit, and then to the High Arctic communities, which increased the cost.
Both Pond Inlet and Arctic Bay have cheaper groceries than the territorial average, even with speculation on cargo volumes from competing grocers.
Despite having Nunavut’s cheapest grocery prices, living in a community with just one store has its downsides, according to one resident.
Daisy Oqallak’s family was relocated from northern Quebec to Resolute Bay in the 1950s, when the federal government was using Inuit families as human flagpoles to assert sovereignty in the North during the Cold War.
“We desperately need another store,” Oqallak said.
A lack of variety at the Co-op is Oqallak’s biggest gripe with the local monopoly.
Her five grandchildren have a hard time finding any socks and pants, and she said materials for traditional clothing aren’t available.
“We don’t even have good material to sew,” she said.
Oqallak said she has been begging the Co-op manager to bring in more products, to no avail.
Another community with only one grocer is Clyde River, which has a Northern store owned by The North West Company.
Clyde River is home to the highest grocery prices in Nunavut.
The 2025 Nunavut Food Price Survey Report reveals that the average grocery haul is 1.5 times higher in Nunavut than it is in Ottawa for the same items.
Though the significant difference highlights the food security challenges in Nunavut, the price differential is less than it was seven years ago.
The GN used a food basket of 24 store-bought items, such as milk, noodles and meat, to compare an average grocery bill.
By William Koblensky Varela, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on May 18, 2026 at 20:35
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