Supporting Sea Ice Monitoring in Communities within Inuit Nunangat 

Backgrounder

Community-led team drilling for ice measurements off Nain, Labrador

Indigenous communities in the North are on the front-line of climate change. The Government of Canada recognizes the importance that traveling on ice has for many people across the North for accessing country foods and other locally available resources, visiting with neighbouring communities and continuing cultural activities. Climate change is rapidly affecting the predictability and safety of this mode of transportation. Unpredictable ice conditions pose safety risks to hunters and harvesters and continue to threaten Inuit traditional way of life and food security.

As part of the Government of Canada's commitment to working with communities to support sea ice monitoring that will improve travel safety on ice, an investment of $417,000.00, through the Climate Change Preparedness in the North Program, supports two projects that aim to address these challenges using leading-edge SmartICE technology.

Monitoring in seven communities across Inuit Nunangat

This project will continue sea-ice monitoring in Nain, Pond Inlet, Iqaluit, Cambridge Bay, Arviat, North West River, and Kugluktuk.

  • Collected data and associated information is being disseminated to ensure travel safety and to inform climate change adaptations.
  • The resulting community-led monitoring, documentation and communication of sea ice conditions will improve safety and increase understanding of how community ice travel routes are affected by climate change.
  • The project funding provides for operator stipends and equipment rentals, along with ongoing maintenance and technical support.
  • Implementation of sea ice monitoring will also provide employment and skill development opportunities to communities. The development of transferrable skill sets will be fostered in local operators.
  • Continued monitoring will also ensure that a record of sea ice conditions is established for each community. This record can be used to analyze trends and changes in the local environment, informing mitigations within the communities and climate change adaptation strategies within the various regions.

Mobilizing Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet, Nunavut) Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit to enhance safe sea-ice travel during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This project will carry on with mobilizing and make available Inuit sea-ice knowledge posters and maps in Pond Inlet as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to increase sea-ice travel.

  • It benefitted from the wisdom and experience from Elders and experienced sea-ice users in the community who shared their knowledge. This information was used to create and distribute educational products such as posters and maps on how to travel safely on the ice. Reliance on this local knowledge, rather than on information developed in southern Canada for recreational snowmobile travel, is essential for safe travel on sea ice, especially for spring sea-ice conditions and break-up.
  • It is expected that during the Covid-19 epidemic the number of people in Mittimatalik going out on the sea ice will continue to increase as Nunavummiut are being encouraged by their government and Inuit organizations to go out on "the land" for their mental health, social distancing and to maintain/support access to the country food supply. This makes this initiative even more valuable.

Both of these projects are conducted under Inuit management and in collaboration with local communities, using science and Inuit Qaujimajatugangit (traditional knowledge). They benefit local youth, who receive training and are able to contribute to the safety of their communities by becoming involved in the operations of the SmartICE system.

SmartICE is an internationally recognized, work integration social enterprise (WISE) that empowers Indigenous communities to adapt to increasingly unpredictable ice conditions. It is the world's first climate change adaptation to integrate Indigenous knowledge of ice safety and travel with community-operated ice monitoring technology and Earth observation satellite imagery. 

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