Community
We start our trips by supporting the local communities wherever we travel, from shopping for our supplies to lodging, and, whenever possible, hiring local guides. We contact local people in the Inuit communities of Grise Fjord and Resolute to see if we can entice local inhabitants to come with us as guides. We even advertize positions. These populations favour the use of snowmobiles and motor boats. The Polar Inuit are not kayakers, unfortunately.
We have given 4 or 5 double kayaks and survival suits to the community. We fund school projects to help students further their education.
We do buy as much of our food supplies as we can locally at the Qausuittuk Co-Op: fresh eggs, butter, juice and things like pickles. We stay at the local hotel. This operation recently earned a Nunavut Government award of excellence for its tourism best practices -- running trips in Nunavut is very challenging and very few operators are willing to go through the effort. We hold a Nunavut outfitter’s license. We engage in dialogue and ask for permission to cross their lands to the Qiqiqtani Inuit Association in Iqaluit, the territorial capital.
Our trip goals include educating and connecting people to nature and the outdoors through natural history based expeditions. We will spend time with research scientists who study the effects of global warming on plants in the field whenever we can. We diligently promote cultural preservation and environmental awareness from our pre-departure information to our no trace practices in the field. As our guests explore the wonders of our world, we hope to help everyone gain new insights and perspectives on other cultures and environments as well as our own and foster a sense of our interconnectedness.
Environment
We consider running these trips our way of giving back to the environment as our guests return better educated and likely to vote or support these environments, their culture and wildlife. People learn on the trip about the effect of global warming – the impact that something as simple as losing the lens cap of a camera might have on fragile environment such as this.
This is a guided active, self propelled wilderness adventure. We minimize the use of motor vehicles. This is the only tourism activity in this geographic area other than commercial hunting. Once we are dropped off in the wilderness, we are walking and paddling across a landscape, noticing everything, but leaving nothing but footprints in our wake.
Every visitor traveling behind us will arrive feeling they are the first explorer to the area. Wildlife skulls, antlers, and artefacts are left as they were found. Rocks anchoring tents are returned their original resting place. The little garbage we generate is carried out with us. Fresh water sources are fiercely protected against contamination.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
