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 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.
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.
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.