The National Inuit Health Survey has been in full swing in Nunavut in recent weeks. The regional organization Nunavut Tunngavik, which is organizing the survey in communities, hopes it will provide a clear picture of the needs that need to be addressed and will help guide funding and programs for Inuit more accurately.
Baptized Qanuippita? – which means how are we? in Inuktitut – the survey is intended to provide a current picture of the health and well-being of Inuit across Canada’s North.
Data collected consisted of individual interviews addressing determinants of health including mental health, food security, housing, trauma, employment and language.
Launched in September 2019 by the national organization Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), then delayed by the health crisis, this national survey is orchestrated by each regional Inuit organization in the country. It covers the Inuvialuit Designated Region (northern NWT), Nunavut, Nunavik and Nunatsiavut (northern Labrador).
Harvesting has already taken place in some of these regions as early as 2022. In Nunavik, five communities were visited by regional public health.
Significant logistical problems, caused by a lack of housing for census takers, have recently put the deployment of the survey in this region on hold.
Open in full screen mode
This map shows the four Inuit regions of Canada: the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (in the Northwest Territories), the territory of Nunavut, Nunavik (in northern Quebec) and Nunatsiavut (in northern Labrador).
Photo : Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami
In Nunavut, enumerators are visiting the communities of Sanirajak, Sanikiluaq and Gjoa Haven this month. Others also visited Pond Inlet on northern Baffin Island in early July.
The idea is that all 25 communities will be invited to participate over the next year, explains Aluki Kotierk, president of the Nunavut Tunngavik (NTI) Inuit territorial organization.
She says Inuit beneficiaries on the NTI list are invited to take part randomly and the number of participants is chosen based on the population size of each community.
Open in full screen mode
The president of the territorial body Inuit Nunavut Tunngavik, Aluki Kotierk
Photo : Radio-Canada / Matisse Harvey
While participation in the survey is voluntary, Kotierk hopes that all those selected will be willing to answer the enumerators’ questions. It’s very important that Inuit participate, she says. [L’enquête] is led and developed by Inuit, who will then own the data.
According to her, this particularity is the strength of the survey. In the past, experts have questioned the reliability of Statistics Canada data due in particular to the lack of census takers capable of speaking Inuktitut.
By having reliable health-related information [des Inuit]we will eventually be able to allocate more resources to a certain region if the needs there are greater than elsewhere, he continues.
For those who wonder about the confidentiality of the data collected, Aluki Kotierk assures that NTI has put in place strict measures to avoid the risk of leaks, such as the creation of a server dedicated to the storage of information.
The ITK received $82 million in federal funding from the Department of Indigenous Services, plus $6 million annually over 10 years, to conduct the investigation.
The last Inuit health surveys were conducted in 2004 and 2017 in Nunavik, and in 2007-2008 in communities in the Inuvialuit Designated Region, Nunavut and Nunatsiavut.
With information from Teresa Qiatsuq
