Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, 7-11 November 2025 • Belleville / Canadian Forces Base Trenton, Ontario, February 2026
The original plan for 2025 was to hold two meetings of the Nunavut SAR Roundtable: the first in Cambridge Bay from 7–11 November and the second in Iqaluit in early December. Due to scheduling challenges, and to take advantage of the opportunity to align with the Arctic SAR Exchange 2026 in Belleville/Canadian Forces Base Trenton, Ontario, the second roundtable was rescheduled. As a result, it was held from 18–20 February 2026 alongside the Exchange, allowing participants to benefit from both events and maximizing engagement with key SAR partners.
These meetings focused on two initiatives:
- Piloting the Nunavut SAR Coordinator Course
This course provides coordinators with practical guidance on managing, planning, and coordinating ground, marine, and aerial search and rescue operations. The course content is grounded in best practices identified by coordinators at previous roundtables, ensuring it reflects operational realities in Nunavut. Participant feedback was actively solicited and incorporated to refine and strengthen the course for future delivery. - Co-Developing SAR Responder Training Materials
In close collaboration with the Cambridge Bay SAR team and other roundtable participants, we developed and filmed content for a short training film designed to introduce new SAR responders to essential, field-tested skills. During the second roundtable meeting, participants provided input on the accompanying written training materials, ensuring alignment with operational realities in Nunavut.
As at every roundtable, participants also had the opportunity to share improvements, ongoing challenges, and concerns, suggest improvements, learn from one another, and ask questions. Relationship-building is the overarching objective of the roundtable, so we consider the personal conversations shared over coffee and meals to be as valuable as any formal roundtable activities. As a result, these meetings involved many extended breaks and shared meals.
