A single mother from Iqaluit says she has waited more than six months for answers to her application for food support.
“It is hard,” Simiga Lyta said in an interview Friday. “I may have a good-paying job, but I need a roof over my head and I feed and clothe nine other people too.
“It’s been a struggle.”
Lyta said she has periodically asked Indigenous Services about the status of her applications, made under the new individual needs-based system that replaced the universal food voucher program last year.
It typically takes weeks to get a response, she said, only to be told there’s a backlog of applications and she has to wait.
Lyta works as a dental administrative assistant at the Qikiqtani General Hospital.
She said people expect her to have plenty of money with that job — but she doesn’t.
Lyta is the mother of seven children; six of them are under the age of 18 and the seventh, her adult daughter, also lives with her. A granddaughter and foster child make up the remaining members of her 10-person household
Her adult daughter has delayed going to college so she can help with the bills.
Lyta said her groceries cost about $900 per week and she pays $3,000 monthly in rent. Even with her job the pays well, she is still struggling.
Until the beginning of April 2025, she had been receiving support from the universal food voucher program which was funded by Indigenous Services Canada through the Inuit Child First Initiative.
Indigenous Service Canada reports that during the life of the universal food voucher program, more than 15,000 Inuit children benefited. The program cost $89 million, the report said.
That program ran from the federal government’s fiscal year 2023-24 until March 31, 2025. Generally, parents of Inuit children 18 and under were eligible for $500 a month for groceries while parents of children four and under could get an additional $250 for things like diapers and baby formula.
The federal government replaced the universal program with one based on each Inuit child’s individual needs.
Lyta said that last May she submitted applications for each of her six dependent children under the new program.
For the new needs-based program, a total of 3,702 applications for assistance were filed from April 1 to Nov. 30. Of those, 1,232 requests have been approved and 416 were denied, Indigenous Services spokesperson Suzanna Su said in an email Wednesday.
“Obviously, I feel very compassionate about Simiga and her family,” Nunavut MP Lori Idlout said of Lyta.
“I have known Simiga for some years now. She is such a good mother to her children. She has always worked very hard to make sure she can provide for them.
“It feels like she is being punished by the federal [government], because we all know that the food voucher program was working so well for so many families.”
Waiting more than six months for a response is “absolutely unacceptable,” Idlout said.
Anispiragas Piragasanathar, a spokesperson for Indigenous Services Canada, said in an email, “There is a backlog of requests for the Inuit Child First Initiative and the strain it is causing on individuals and communities is unacceptable.
“Indigenous Services staff continue to work diligently to clear the existing backlog of requests under the Inuit Child First Initiative and to process new requests.”
Children with urgent or life-threatening needs are prioritized, Piragasanathar said.