SMARTICE

IMAGINE FOR A MOMENT A STAR. Each one of its five arms represents something different: northern sea ice, climate change, traditional knowledge, high-tech science, and training opportunities for Inuit youth. Binding all five together at the star’s bright core is SmartICE: an innovative social enterprise that was the brainchild of Dr. Trevor Bell (M.Sc.’87) at Memorial University and is now monitoring northern ice in a changing climate.

We hire youth who normally wouldn’t get a chance like this, to join a short employment program that also helps to prepare them for other opportunities. I’ve helped youth find jobs, apply for funding, and apply for college — and that’s after the course.

It does this by using SmartBUOYs: high-tech sensors inserted into the ice to monitor its thickness. The people who use the ice — hunters, trappers, travellers — can access the data online and use it to help inform their decisions about where to travel. Essentially, the SmartBUOYs add one more tool to the traveller’s safety kit. That’s important in places like Nunatsiavut, where ice conditions are changing so quickly that some routes used for generations are now dangerously unpredictable.

But just where does one embed a SmartBUOY in the vast northern ice? That’s where traditional knowledge comes in, says Carolann Harding, ICD.D (B.Voc.Ed.’97, Dip.Voc.Ed.’97), executive director of SmartICE.

“We work with people in the community and they tell us where the SmartBUOYs should be placed. Where are the traditional paths that people would take? Are the paths changing because of climate change? Having a piece of technology is one thing, but when you combine it with traditional knowledge, it makes it more relevant.”

From its Northern Production Centre in Nain, SmartICE trains local Inuit youth to build and deploy the equipment; it also preps them for future employment. Harding calls the centre the “shining star of the social enterprise.”

Heading up the program in Nunatsiavut is Rex Holwell, SmartICE’s northern production and regional operations lead. Since 2019, Holwell has worked with three cohorts of Inuit youth.

“They go through a technological training program where we teach them many things,” he says. “We get them to build the SmartBUOYs, but we also help them build their resumes and cover letters, we train them in first aid, and give them any other training opportunities that come up.”

Holwell’s pride in his trainees is apparent.

“We hire youth who normally wouldn’t get a chance like this, to join a short employment program that also helps to prepare them for other opportunities. I’ve helped youth find jobs, apply for funding, and apply for college — and that’s after the course.”

SmartICE’s community involvement is an essential piece of its wider mission as a social enterprise. “Any profits we do make,” explains Harding, “go back into the training and economic development opportunities for Inuit in their communities.”