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Nunavik rescue efforts to get $1.5-million boost

Delays in fatal canoe mishap prompt calls for improvements

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Johnny Adams, the chair of the Kativik Regional Government, hopes a new search-and-rescue protocol will eliminate the kinds of communication problems that have plagued search efforts in the past. (FILE PHOTO)

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Residents of Nunavik can hope for smoother, safer search and rescue operations in the new year.

Johnny Adams, chair of the Kativik Regional Government, said future searches will be boosted by new funding, specialized equipment devoted to Nunavik, and a more cooperative relationship with provincial police.

Adams said one of the main improvements will come when he delivers long-awaited rescue boats to each of the northern communities by the end of spring. Another will be getting provincial police to react more quickly to reports of missing people.

The regional government will pay $1.5 million for the boats, which Adams says will put more control into the hands of Nunavimmiut.

And by the time they're delivered, Adams anticipates the boats will have a made-in-Nunavik rescue policy to back them up.

Talks are already under way between Nunavik's regional government, regional police and Sureté du Québéc, Quebec's provincial police force, to adapt the province's search and rescue protocol to northern needs. In August, Adams accused the provincial police of waiting too long to begin searching for a family of four that went missing in Ungava Bay.

Adams said the current approach to search and rescue in Nunavik is flawed because the region — which has 2,500 kilometres of coastline — doesn't have one specialized rescue boat for searches at sea. Worse yet, he said, provincial police who currently have the equipment are either too slow, or uncooperative in answering Nunavik's requests for help.

Adams said this problem became obvious in August when the search team in Kangirsuk requested provincial police send a helicopter to help find the Kauki family, who went missing while canoeing on Ungava Bay.

Instead, Adams said police offered map-reading services, which was promptly turned down because the team already had locals who knew the area.

"In the past when we tried to request their assistance for search and rescue, we usually ran into bureaucratic hurdles," Adams said of the provincial police. "This type of problem shouldn't happen again."

Adams said avoiding future problems will require provincial police to take Nunavik's northern context into account.

"Usually, when somebody's reported missing down South ... the SQ has a period where they have to wait 24 to 48 hours when somebody's reported missing," Adams said. "But we said this policy doesn't make sense for our region. When somebody's reported missing, they're missing, not because they've gone to another community or driven somewhere."

Adams expected changes will be made to provincial police involvement in northern searches by January. The changes could also include a new funding formula, as well as guarantees of better logistical support from the provincial police's canine search squad and use of its helicopter.

Under Adams' proposed funding formula, provincial and regional police will split the bill for air searches involving planes. Currently, regional government programs pay half. Adams also proposed that provincial police pay for the gas and food required in land searches. Adams estimated the savings under the new plan would amount to about $200,000 per year.

However, a spokesperson for provincial police said the new search and rescue protocol has yet to be finalized.

"We don't know yet what will be in the protocol," Hugues Beaulieu, a provincial police media liaison, said in an interview. "[And] there's no set date for putting the protocol in action.

"But obviously we won't abandon someone in need. As soon as someone is declared lost, we'll help find that person."

Beaulieu defended the current protocol, arguing that as a provincial police force, they treat each region of Quebec equally. Moreover, he said there should only be a few hours' delay before a full-blown search begins.

Whether in Nunavik or not, he said police first have to establish whether the individual is actually lost.

"Before searching through the woods or the tundra, you have to first check hotels, extended family, anywhere the individual might have gone without being lost," Beaulieu said. "But this is done within the first hours of someone being reported lost."

While the protocol will boost provincial police involvement in Nunavik searches, Adams' plan to purchase rescue boats for the region's 14 communities will make Nunavik less dependent on outside help.

Adams expected the funding for the boats would be available from last year's multi-million-dollar agreement with the Quebec government. He said he should be able to confirm their delivery by regional government's next council meeting in mid-February.

With the funding in place, Adams said there was no longer any reason to wait, alluding to several failed attempts to get funding from the federal government.

"I think this time we have to take the initiative on our own, and not wait for government," Adams said.

The announcement of rescue boats comes in the wake of the Nov. 5 municipal elections, where many winning mayoral candidates pledged to lobby the government for their own boats.

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