SmartICE is an Indigenous-led not-for-profit social enterprise that delivers ice monitoring services and products to northern and remote communities. Working in partnership with communities and industries across Inuit Nunangat, Nunavik, the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, and northern British Columbia, SmartICE monitors sea ice, lake ice, and river ice to provide reliable, near real-time information on ice conditions. Our ice thickness data contributes to safer ice travel.


Using a combination of Indigenous and local ice knowledge, on-ice monitoring systems, mapping technology, and satellite imagery, SmartICE helps interpret changing ice conditions and supports safer travel, situational awareness, and local decision-making. Technologies such as the SmartICE ice profiler and SmartBUOY contribute to community-based monitoring programs and broader climate adaptation efforts across diverse northern landscapes.

Ice is a vital part of the Indigenous way of life. Northern community members rely on the ice to hunt and gather food to feed their families, collect wood to heat their homes, visit family and friends in neighbouring communities, and to practice cultural activities. The Arctic is warming at nearly four times the global average, resulting in rapidly changing ice conditions across the north. Our technology goes where it’s needed most and supports emergency prevention and search-and-rescue response.

It was Christmas day. And you know it’s Christmas day; you’ve got a pile of wrapping paper. So, me and my uncle took that garbage and we actually traveled on the sea ice from our home which was closer to the water. And we traveled on sea ice to the dump.

Nowadays, December 25th, it’s still open water. So, in the span of my 43 years from then, I’m seeing the sea ice coming a month later. So, we’re getting shorter seasons on the ice to be able to hunt and practice our culture.