Like many people living in Clyde River, Jackorasee Matu Iqaqrialu has to make sacrifices to put food on the table.
His fridge and freezer have a handful of staples for the seven people living in his home, but there’s not always enough to go around.
“We have to sell our stuff sometimes and we have to ask for help from family,” Iqaqrialu said about how he manages to feed his family.
Clyde River has the highest grocery prices in the territory, according to a Government of Nunavut study. Taloyoak is a close second.
Grocery prices in Clyde River are 19.6 per cent higher than the Nunavut average, while prices in Taloyoak are 19.5 per cent higher than the territorial average.
There’s only one grocery store in Clyde River, a Northern store, while Taloyoak has both a Northern and a Co-op.
No direct evidence exists that the Northern store in Clyde River is what’s causing higher grocery prices, according to Nicholas Li, an associate professor in the Department of Economics at Toronto Metropolitan University.
“They don’t face competition from a Co-op. On the one hand, that means that they have a larger market, so they have better scale economy, but… the fact that they (Northern) could charge a lower price doesn’t mean that they necessarily do,” Li said
The North West Company’s only monopoly in Nunavut is in Clyde River.
Grocery prices in Clyde River are affected by the Northern store having a monopoly in the community, according to The North West Company’s vice-president of sales and operations, Michael Beaulieu.
“There could be some competitive pricing that occurs in some markets that doesn’t exist in Clyde River.” Beaulieu acknowledged.
All Northern and Northmart prices are set by the company’s headquarters in Winnipeg, he explained.
Li’s research has found that Northern and Northmart stores owned by The North West company are, on average, three to six per cent more expensive than Co-ops.
That doesn’t account for Clyde River’s nearly 20 per cent difference from the Nunavut average, nor does it explain why Taloyoak is nearly just as expensive with a Co-op and a Northern.
Flight path
Matt Teed was a Northern store manager in Iglulik from 2016 to 2020, Kangigsuallujuaq, Que. (Nunavik) from 2020 to 2021, as well as a Co-op manager in Resolute Bay from 2012 to 2014.
Teed said he believes higher prices in Clyde River are due to the North West Company having a monopoly there.
However, food deliveries taking longer to arrive in both Clyde River and Taloyoak are also part of the problem, he suggested.
Flight routing from the south means that some communities farther north end up as the last stop of a cargo plane’s delivery schedule, Teed said.
Beaulieu also conceded that communities at the end of cargo plane shipping routes may pay higher prices for groceries.
Groceries make multiple stops on the way to northern Baffin Island communities like Clyde River and in bigger Kitikmeot region communities before landing in Taloyoak.
Being at the end of a cargo plane route drives up fuel prices for transporting products to those communities, as does smaller planes picking up the cargo along the way, explained Beaulieu.
“Clyde River is (shipped) out of Iqaluit. It is kind of an end of a run for us. It doesn’t have some of those same efficiencies (as Iqaluit), both with aircraft type for service and the utilization of cargo space by air is different in Clyde River than it is in some other markets,” Beaulieu said.
Shipments to Iqaluit from down south are made by large aircraft that can carry 12,000 to 15,000 lbs., whereas planes carrying cargo to Clyde river can carry 4,000 lbs., Beaulieu explained.
The price differences between sealift transportation and cargo planes to those communities are stark, due to higher aviation fuel costs.
In Clyde River, Kool-Aid Jammers, for example, retailed for $15.89 during sealift periods and $27.39 when delivered by a cargo plane.
In Taloyoak, tuna light chunk in water was priced at $2.89 via sealift and $4.09 on air cargo.
The North West Company has its own cargo plane company called North Star Air, while Arctic Co-ops contracts Calm Air and Kenn Borek.
No major hotel in Taloyoak
The only hotel in Taloyoak is the Boothia Inn, and it doesn’t have its own restaurant, unlike other communities with large hotels.
Hotels with restaurants can help grocery stores by ordering products by sealift or cargo planes through the grocers, spreading the fuel costs across products.
“Many of the Co-ops are not just a retail store, they also have a hotel or other operations, and so the profit from one segment can cross-subsidize another,” Li said.
Beaulieu agreed that more businesses, such as a hotel, paying for shipments decreases costs.
“There’s efficiency because it’s not just a single payer using a service. When you have multiple payers — I would include, like a hotel — they would be bringing supplies in, people in; there may be some more efficiency in terms of how equipment is used,” Beaulieu said.
Samson Ittungna, from Taloyoak, said he regularly sees people in town asking for groceries on social media.
Ittungna said he believes wars caused by U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are causing global inflation that is driving up grocery costs.
Beaulieu said fuel inflation is particularly high right now.
Objections to study findings
There are flaws in the GN study that found Clyde River and Taloyoak have the most expensive groceries, according to Beaulieu.
The study likely measured a difference in fuel price contracts on The North West Company’s flights to some communities, meanwhile other communities that appear cheaper were using an older fuel price, he suggested.
Those prices would partially even out once new fuel contracts were signed for other communities, though some places are just more expensive to ship to and operate in, Beaulieu said.
“I don’t think there’s anything different happening in Clyde River than any of our other Northern markets. Every market’s pricing is impacted by the structural costs of operating the business, and those structural costs include the cost to get goods into the market,” he said.
However, Clyde River and Taloyoak have consistently ranked among the most expensive communities in the federal government’s Northern Food Basket study going back to 2011.
“I don’t think that timing of fuel surcharges in and of itself could really explain what appear to be fairly persistent and decently large differences in food prices across these communities,” Li said.
By William Koblensky Varela, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Jun 01, 2026 at 11:26
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