Need search and rescue resupply? Call us, says GN

This story was updated on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, at 9:20 a.m. ET.

If any hamlet’s volunteer search and rescue team lacks equipment — such as first-aid supplies and GPS tracker devices — there is a simple solution.

Call the GN.

“There is funding available for us to support ground search and rescue teams and municipalities in having these things on hand,” said Jessica Young, assistant deputy minister for Nunavut’s Department of Community and Government Services.

“We do have mechanisms for that.”

Uqqummiut MLA Mary Killiktee raised concerns earlier this month in the legislative assembly about what she referred to as a lack of search and rescue supplies in Clyde River and Qikiqtarjuaq, among other small communities.

She spoke out following the Feb. 11 death of hunter Jusua Kautuq Ilauq on the land outside Clyde River.

The territorial government is now working with Clyde River’s search and rescue co-ordinator Gina Paniloo to ensure her team’s supplies are fully stocked.

The government is not just waiting for other communities to call, however, said Young.

Two “go-bags” — large duffel bags that contain equipment ranging from tarps and sleeping bags to Coleman stoves and first-aid supplies — are being sent to all 25 communities this spring at a cost of $50,000. Procurement is underway.

The effort to top-up search and rescue supplies across the territory is not a new initiative, Young said.

“In terms of the search and rescue program, we’ve been working quite significantly and hands-on over the last two years on that,” she said.

The department met in Iqaluit with representatives from most of the territory’s 25 hamlets in November for a search and rescue roundtable as part of the ongoing effort to improve local emergency management and co-ordination in the territory.

Search and rescue co-ordinators from Clyde River, Pond Inlet and Pangnirtung planned to attend, but could not due to weather and emergencies.

Those communities did attend a subsequent search and rescue exchange in Nova Scotia last month. The three communities’ representatives were briefed on what they missed at the November roundtable.

Previous regional roundtables were convened in 2020 and 2022, during which search and rescue team co-ordinators were encouraged to share challenges and concerns, suggest improvements, and learn best practices from one another and from other partners, such as the Canadian Coast Guard and Joint Task Force North.

While all search and rescue teams were encouraged to communicate needs for any equipment they require during November’s meetings in Iqaluit, only five communities followed up, Young said. The department has continued to extend its invitation through subsequent email correspondence.

Community and Government Services has also strengthened collaboration with RCMP detachments, she said, which has brought search dogs and drones into the fold in recent years.

A new search and rescue manager is now positioned in Cambridge Bay, as well.

“We move at the speed of trust,” Young said, quoting her department’s driving maxim.

“That trust that we build, between our team, the local search and rescue team, and our RCMP detachments is so significant to make sure that our response is quick and appropriate to any search and rescue operation.”

Nunavut saw five search and rescue operations between March 7 and 13. They were in Igloolik, Cambridge Bay, Gjoa Haven, Baker Lake and Resolute Bay. That brings the total number of operations so far this fiscal year — which ends March 31 — to 144.

Correction: This story was updated to correct Jessica Young’s position within the Department of Community and Government Services.