{"id":427386,"date":"2026-01-23T05:17:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T05:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/427386\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T05:17:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T05:17:16","slug":"iqaluit-mom-waits-6-months-for-answers-on-food-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/427386\/","title":{"rendered":"Iqaluit mom waits 6 months for answers on food support"},"content":{"rendered":"

A single mother from Iqaluit says she has waited more than six months for answers to her application for food support.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is hard,\u201d Simiga Lyta said in an interview Friday. \u201cI may have a good-paying job, but I need a roof over my head and I feed and clothe nine other people too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It typically takes weeks to get a response, she said, only to be told there\u2019s a backlog of applications and she has to wait.<\/p>\n

Lyta works as a dental administrative assistant at the Qikiqtani General Hospital.<\/p>\n

She said people expect her to have plenty of money with that job \u2014 but she doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Her adult daughter has delayed going to college so she can help with the bills.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

That program ran from the federal government\u2019s fiscal year 2023-24 until March 31, 2025<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

The federal government replaced the universal program with one based on each Inuit child\u2019s individual needs.<\/p>\n

Lyta said that last May she submitted applications for each of her six dependent children under the new program.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I feel very compassionate about Simiga and her family,\u201d Nunavut MP Lori Idlout said of Lyta.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waiting more than six months for a response is \u201cabsolutely unacceptable,\u201d Idlout said.<\/p>\n

Anispiragas Piragasanathar, a spokesperson for Indigenous Services Canada, said in an email, \u201cThere is a backlog of requests for the Inuit Child First Initiative and the strain it is causing on individuals and communities is unacceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndigenous Services staff continue to work diligently to clear the existing backlog of requests under the Inuit Child First Initiative and to process new requests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Children with urgent or life-threatening needs are prioritized, Piragasanathar said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A single mother from Iqaluit says she has waited more than six months for answers to her application…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-427386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}