OTTAWA — The national organization that represents Inuit in Canada is calling for air transportation to be designated an essential service in Canada’s 51 Inuit communities for the duration of the COVID-19 response.
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami says flights are the sole transportation for food, medicine and other essential supplies in all but two of Canada’s northern Inuit communities in the winter and spring.
Air transportation is required to take patients who need advanced medical treatment to urban hospitals and is also needed for COVID-19 testing.
ITK president Natan Obed says increasingly strict travel restrictions due to the spread of the novel coronavirus has led to fewer flights in and out of Inuit communities.
Major airlines operating in the traditional Inuit territory, known Inuit Nunangat, have pledged a minimum level of passenger and cargo service, but concerns are rising this will become difficult, if not impossible, to maintain due to declining airline revenues.
Obed says emergency support for airlines operating in Inuit communities is necessary to guarantee the ongoing supply of essential goods and timely access to medical care.
He says designating air transport an essential service would position it as a public service that must continue and ensure federal funds are allocated as necessary.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 31, 2020.
The Canadian Press
