After eight consecutive hikes in its key rate to bring it to 4.5%, the Bank of Canada now wants to take a break. Phew! Like me, do you eye the black pennies lying around in an old tub of ice cream because rolling them would help pay for your lettuce? Life, real life, is expensive. While young people hope to be able to buy a house a few months before retirement and minimalism is thought of as a new normal, I tell you that there is worse. There is always worse.
Recently, I was in Matimekush (Innu community near the town of Schefferville). At this height, only Nunavik separates us from the Arctic. It gives you an idea.
At this latitude, everything is expensive. First, to get there, there are no roads. Two choices are available to us: the plane for the modest sum of $2,400 (the price of my ticket leaving Montreal, the same price as a ticket to go to Sydney, Australia, I checked ) or, choice number two: 11 hours by car from Montreal to Sept-Îles, then 12 hours by train to Schefferville. The second option is significantly cheaper, but also endless.
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, PRESS ARCHIVES
Grocery department in Nunavut, in 1993!
And how about two and a half liters of orange juice at $19.99 or $10.50 for 22 slices of well-known brand name yellow cheese, $2 an apple, $10 a small broccoli or $15.69 a kilo of red peppers? Peppers that have undoubtedly seen better days, by the way. And I’m not talking about the bananas that visibly froze during transport by train.
I was telling you about juice. I did the math. It costs three times less per milliliter to drink a soft drink than juice. So what do you think people drink?
Imagine the cost of materials. Do you break a window while playing baseball? It is replaced with a compressed wood panel. Here it is the norm. You get used to it after a while, I guess.
Everything is too expensive. Far too expensive. Not like people make big salaries either. The biggest employer is the band council. There are very few businesses and often they are owned by non-Aboriginal people, who are a minority in these places.
At least there’s not much to spend on. Do not look for a cinema or a theater. I couldn’t find a clothing store either, other than outdoor clothing at the grocery store. There is a restaurant and a half and a bar, some evenings.
Plus, we’re freezing! It was -43°C when we woke up one morning. The propane (propane, there, a gas) had frozen. Who came to fix the TV that had given way? The local paramedic.
We learn to manage, that’s all.
On the plane, a nurse told me that to transport an emergency patient to Sept-Îles, they had to requisition the plane which was to transport passengers. Can you imagine the cost of all this?
I tell myself that sometimes we don’t realize the privileges we can have in the South. And I include myself in this reflection.
I seem gray with all this, but I want to end on a positive note (it’s in my resolutions for the year).
Over there, in Matimekush and Kawawachikamach (the Naskapi community located a few kilometers away), there is the most beautiful thing that a man cannot buy: land, clean air, freedom. The stress ? Don’t know, except maybe to make ends meet. However, no one ever seems to be in trouble. We know each other, we help each other. It’s the way to survive here, to be well. We learn it quickly! It’s as if the weight on our shoulders is distributed among all of us. And we often share the product of the hunt. It helps in difficult times.
Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you can even witness the most majestic outdoor spectacle (who needs a performance hall?): that of the dancing green, yellow and sometimes pink aurora borealis.
All of that can’t be bought.