Élections Québec sends teams to Nunavik early to avoid weather delays
Élections Québec is sending election workers to Nunavik 10 days before the Oct. 5 provincial election to avoid potential weather disruptions and give workers time to train locals.
“The team will remain on site until election day so there won’t be travel issues in the case of bad weather conditions,” spokesperson Julie St-Arnaud-Drolet said in an email exchange.
The plan follows major problems during the April 2025 federal election, when some Nunavik polling stations closed early or didn’t open at all after weather disrupted election workers’ flights. Elections Canada, which organizes federal elections, apologized at the time and said it would investigate the issue.
Élections Québec, the body responsible for provincial elections, is taking the announced measures to avoid similar disruptions.
“During their stay, the team will try to recruit and train community members to work on election day,” St-Arnaud-Drolet said. “If locals agree to work on the Oct. 5 voting day, electors will be able to have service in Inuktitut.”
Nunavik’s roughly 14,000 residents live in 14 communities, most accessible from southern Quebec only by plane. In the majority Inuit region, Inuktitut is the main language for many residents, with English the second language, and relatively few speaking French.
Prominent Inuit leaders have said the lack of information in Inuktitut is an ongoing election concern for residents.
St-Arnaud-Drolet said the new travel measures are part of several initiatives Élections Québec is taking to improve service and get election information to Nunavik residents in their local language: an additional Inuktitut information document is being sent to Nunavik post office boxes along with English and French versions and an Inuktitut guide to the provincial election is available on the Élections Québec website.
Voting messages will also air on local radio stations, she said.
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Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Nunavik voters still face election language barriers after Quebec ruling, Inuit leader says, Eye on the Arctic
Finland: Sámi Parliament warns Lapland service cuts would hit Sámi communities hard, Eye on the Arctic
