Inuit Health Survey had unprecedented participation, will direct health planning and programming for

The extensive ship-borne Inuit Health Survey was the largest single research project to benefit Nunavut, Nunatsiavut and the Inuvialuit ­Settlement Region during the International Polar Year ­period.

Both Iqaluit Mayor Elisapee Sheutiapik and Nunavut Research Institute's IPY coordinator Jamal Shirley agree that the survey produced unprecedented levels of local involvement.

And when the "reams of information" that were gathered have all been compiled, sifted and analyzed, Shirley said, "it will provide a baseline of data for health planning and programming for years into the future."

But the health survey was just one of many research projects that covered a wide variety of science disciplines and visited all parts of Nunavut.

The territory "listed more IPY activities than any other jurisdiction in the north," Shirley said.

The health survey used the Canadian Coast Guard ship, the Amundsen, to visit communities in all three jurisdictions to collect information about the health and wellness of Inuit adults, children and communities.

In 2007 and 2008, shipboard staff surveyed over 2,300 Inuit in all 25 Nunavut communities, plus six communities from Inuvialuit and five from Nunatsiavut. The aim was to ensure all research was conducted ethically, respecting Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and individual confidentiality.

The Nunavut Association of Municipalities, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the Government of Nunavut and Montreal's McGill University were all major partners in the health survey.

Sheutiapik, who helped launch the survey during her term as president of NAM, recently returned from Geneva, Switzerland, where the World Meteorological Organization, an IPY sponsor, held a gathering to mark the end of IPY.

"It gave me a better understanding of how many different countries around the world care about the impact that global climate change is having," Sheutiapik said about the federal-sponsored trip.

"Climate change is happening even faster than anticipated," she said.

Sheutiapik told the Geneva gathering about last spring's flooding in Pangnirtung that washed out the town's main bridge, about beach-front homes in Igloolik that are in danger of being washed away, and about the record high temperature of 26 degrees Celsius that Iqaluit experienced last summer, "something we'd never seen before."

She also said that search-and-rescue is increasingly being called out to help hunters who aren't lost, but who have become stuck due to premature melting that has made spring travel impossible.

Although direct linkages may not be provable, she said, all these situations are almost certainly connected to human-induced global climate change.

Major concerns about loss of polar bear habitat due to shrinking sea ice have also been making polar bear management an increasingly touchy and complex international issue.

Four Nunavut Sivuniksavut students also traveled from Ottawa to attend the Geneva event. Kiah Hachey, Janice Grey, Ann-Marie Aitchison, and Karen Flaherty gave a short presentation and performed Inuit songs and throat singing.

The IPY focus was intensified by rapidly increasing global recognition that polar regions like Nunavut are the canary in the coal mine to provide early warnings about climate change.

At the same time, melting icecaps and permafrost are threatening to increase both the causes of climate disruptions around the world, and effects like rising sea levels that may flood highly populated lowland areas like Bangladesh, the Netherlands, South Pacific islands, and others.

And although those projects are clearly important sources of pure scientific knowledge about "the wonders of the world," Shirley said, they also highlight "the whole notion of research as an economic activity that brings jobs, wages and money to communities."

During 2007, Nunavut hosted 50 IPY research projects, involving 400 researchers. And in 2008, over 460 scientists participated in 156 research activities. Sixty per cent of the research was land based, 30 per cent took place in communities, and 10 per cent was ship based.

The increased focus brought much needed equipment and infrastructure to organizations like the Nunavut Research Institute, and helped Nunavummiut see scientific research as a possible career path.

"Our next generation of scientists from Nunavut have been engaged through IPY," Shirley said.

The increased activity also "highlighted some long-standing challenges," he added. IPY underscored the need to develop consistent terms for the participation of local people and community organizations in research.

Shirley noted instances of one group of elders being paid $200 a day to participate in research, while another group was paid $350 a day, and still others, $700.

As well, some elders found themselves experiencing what Shirley called "interview fatigue." He said that in one community, five elders were interviewed 10 times over the course of a year by 10 unrelated groups of researchers, each with its own agenda.

"It can get overwhelming and frustrating," he said.