Federal Program Offering Free Snowmobiles for Arctic Residents Cost $32M in 2023

A snowmobiler makes his way through the ice heaves in Frobisher Bay in Iqaluit, Nunavut on Dec. 10, 2014. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

A federal program providing free snowmobiles to Arctic residents came with a $32 million price tag in 2023, quadruple the $8 million Ottawa budgeted for the initiative in 2022.

The federal government committed more than $96 million over a three-year period to an initiative aimed at supporting traditional indigenous activities through the Harvester Support Grant Program, cabinet disclosed in a Inquiry of Ministry response obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.

“The full amount of this investment has been committed to 24 recipient organizations,” the report said.

The report was tabled in the Commons at the request of Conservative MP Ziad Aboultaif who questioned the total funding committed through the harvester program since it was introduced in 2020.

Former Crown-Indigenous Relations deputy minister Daniel Quan-Watson highlighted the program’s origin in his 2022 testimony before the Commons public accounts committee.

He said the Inuit community had expressed a desire for the harvester grants to avoid reliance on store-bought food, emphasizing the grant eligibility of virtually all Northern Inuit communities.

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Although the Inquiry document did not specify how the $32 million was allocated last year, Mr. Quan-Watson confirmed that part of the program’s funding supported the purchase of snowmobiles.

This marked the first instance of such grants, facilitating the collection of “country foods,” he said.

Only communities without year-round surface transportation, such as permanent road, rail, or marine access can qualify for the grant money through the harvester program. These communities must rely on air transportation for more than eight months each year and meet the territorial or provincial definition of a northern community by possessing an airport, post office, or grocery store.

The Harvesters Support Grant “increases access to country foods by providing funding to support traditional hunting, harvesting and food sharing in isolated communities” and is a recent addition to the Nutrition North Canada program, according to the government website. It was developed with indigenous “partners” as a way to respect “the inherent hunting and harvesting rights” of indigenous communities in Canada.

Mr. Quan-Watson said funding through the program can be used for snowmobiles as well as for fuel, hunting and fishing equipment, and other tools for collecting traditional foods or berries. The decisions on what to acquire are typically made by the Inuit community and other eligible recipients in the North, he said.

In addition to snowmobile subsidies, federal managers in 2023 also endorsed funding of $240,000 to support goose farming on Hudson Bay, according to a Canadian Institutes of Health Research memo. This initiative aims to bolster community harvests and consumption of light geese, contributing to the restoration of Inuit food sovereignty.