In Nunavik, the search and rescue (SAR) services provided by community responders create a safety net that allows Nunavimmiut to live, travel, harvest, and work on the land. Ground SAR responders, Coast Guard Auxiliary members, fast rescue craft crew, Civil Air Search and Rescue Association spotters, Canadian Rangers, and local aircraft pilots and crew are able and willing to respond to incidents on the land, water, and ice 24/7/365, in some of the harshest conditions in the world. While they sometimes work with partners in the police, Royal Canadian Air Force, and Coast Guard, often they are on their own.

It’s a challenging task. The region’s vast size – over 500,000 square kilometres (km), with 2,500 km of coastline and over 7,000 islands – and tough environment combine to make time the enemy of all responders. Limited local resources, infrastructure, equipment, and training gaps, jurisdictional issues, and the distance from outside help are all major difficulties.

While space and distance define SAR in Nunavik, so to does its intimacy. Nunavimmiut responders usually know the people for whom they are searching. SAR in Nunavik can involve brothers searching for brothers, parents for children, children for parents. It is searches for cousins, best friends, neighbours, and Elders. Almost every responder has found loved ones deceased – from the cold, from accidents, or from self-harm. The toll of this trauma and tragedy on the mental health of community responders is extreme. But they keep on going out, driven by a desire to serve their communities, to save their friends and families, and, often, because they are the only ones with the required skillsets.

This website is devoted to the community responders and their partners who risk life and limb “so that others may live.” A joint initiative by Kativik Civil Security and the Nunavik SAR Roundtable (a mix of Nunavimmiut responders, government practitioners, and other experts) the purpose of the site is simple: to provide information about search and rescue, to offer resources to community responders, and to serve as a platform through which to improve SAR prevention and response in the region. Stay tuned!