A Northern Moment: Tackling Nunavut Climate Change
Across Nunavut, communities have found creative solutions to tackle climate change. With help from the Government of Canada's Climate Change Preparedness in the North Program, Nunavut is addressing the impacts of climate change.
Transcript
Text on screen: Minister of Northern Affairs Daniel Vandal joins key players for a virtual tour of climate change initiatives in Nunavut.
Honourable Daniel Vandal, Minister of Northern Affairs: Communities such as Arviat have led, and continue to lead, the way on developing solutions to tackle climate change. Your community drainage project is one example of how you came together to respond to flooding in your streets and homes caused by thawing permafrost and severe weather.
Across Nunavut, Nunavummiut are leading successful climate projects in your communities. In Kivalliq region, youth are working with hunters and Elders to track the impacts of climate change on local vegetation, on caribou, water conditions and the marine food chain, addressing concerns about accessing country food while empowering local youth.
And in the hamlet of Baker Lake, the community is installing a solar energy system on the local recreational centre to reduce their reliance on diesel, create jobs and generate revenue, and providing of course a renewable source of energy for the community.
Mark Hopkins, Director General, Natural Resources and Environment, CIRNAC: And so our job is to sort of help communities build up their resilience and you know help them lead the way in their own communities.
Joe Savikataaq Jr., Arviat Mayor: I'm just very, very appreciative of what's coming up. Thank you very much, and looking forward to the future on more projects that we want to pursue. Thank you.
Steve England, Arviat Senior Administrative Officer: Arviat is a very resilient community. I think our secret formula is we listen to the community, in particular to our Elders, the knowledge they have, we try to incorporate it.
Honourable Daniel Vandal, Minister of Northern Affairs: Keep up the great work and thanks for taking the time to meet with me.
Text on screen: (Canada wordmark is shown)
Thank you to the participants:
- Hon. Daniel Vandal, Minister of Northern Affairs
- Yves Theriault (Moderator), CIRNAC
- Joe Savikataaq Jr., Arviat Mayor
- Steve England, Arviat Senior Administrative Officer
- Keith Collier, Project Manager for Hamlet of Arviat
- John Price, CIRNAC Senior Policy Analyst
- Mark Hopkins, Director General, Natural Resources and Environment