North. Safe. Sound.
Building Local Capacity for Climate Change Monitoring and Research
The success of SmartICE is driven by skilled local teams who operate technology, interpret ice conditions, and support community-based ice monitoring programs and research. Working alongside our Community Management Committees (CMCs) or local governance partners, these initiatives help ensure SmartICE services are locally led, culturally relevant, and responsive to community priorities. Our training initiatives are designed to develop the technical expertise, operational knowledge, and leadership needed to sustain SmartICE services in northern communities.
Community-Led
Ice Monitoring
Community Management Committees (CMCs) are local governance groups that guide SmartICE operations in each partner community. Working alongside SmartICE staff, CMCs help determine monitoring priorities, identify areas of concern, and decide where SmartICE technology is deployed to monitor community travel routes and areas of concern, ensuring ice safety initiatives reflect local needs and community priorities.
Composed of Elders, local ice experts, youth, representatives from local organizations and other community members, CMCs ensure that Indigenous knowledge and on-the-land experience remain central to decision-making. In communities where a CMC is not established, SmartICE works with other local governance entities such as hamlets and Hunters and Trappers Organizations (HTOs).
Explore the ice travel safety products co-designed by SmartICE staff and Community Management Committees in Mittimatalik, Gjoa Haven, Nain, Qikiqtarjuaq, and Taloyoak.
Mentorship, Training, and Leadership
The success of SmartICE is driven by skilled local teams who operate technology, interpret ice conditions, and support community-based ice monitoring programs and research. Working alongside our Community Management Committees (CMCs) or local governance partners, these initiatives help ensure SmartICE services are locally led, culturally relevant, and responsive to community priorities. Our training initiatives are designed to develop the technical expertise, operational knowledge, and leadership needed to sustain SmartICE services in northern communities.
Above-Ice
Knowledge Products
The Knowledge Co-Production Training Program (previously known as the Sikumik Qaujimajjuti Program) supports the next generation of Indigenous community-based researchers and Community Knowledge Coordinators. Developed in response to requests from Community Management Committees, this hybrid program combines in-person, online, and annual workshop-based training hosted in northern communities.
Over two to three years, participants develop the skills to produce weekly ice travel safety maps that support informed decision-making and safer travel on community trails. Training includes geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, satellite imagery interpretation, digital mapping, and community knowledge co-production.
On-Ice
Operations
The SmartICE Operator Training Program prepares community members to deploy, operate, and maintain SmartICE monitoring systems safely and confidently. Delivered over a week, the program combines classroom instruction with practical on-ice training covering equipment operation, maintenance, first-aid and troubleshooting.
Elders and experienced ice experts play an important role in the training process by sharing local knowledge of ice conditions and safe travel practices. The program is designed for community members interested in becoming seasonal SmartICE Operators, as well as those working in guardian, stewardship, and environmental monitoring programs.
Graduates receive a SmartICE Certificate of Achievement, Emergency First Aid certification, and a SmartICE Operator hat, joining a growing network of trained operators who support safe ice travel in their communities.
Employment Readiness and Technology Development Program (ERTDP)
The Employment Readiness and Technology Development Program (ERTDP) is a paid two- to six-week training program that equips youth with technical, STEM, and workplace skills while learning how to assemble the SmartBUOY sensor. This production work takes place at SmartICE's Northern Production Centre in Nain, Nunatsiavut, where participants gain hands-on experience building technology designed for northern environments.
Participants earn First Aid and WHMIS certifications while developing practical workplace skills such as résumé writing, interviewing, communication, and time management. The curriculum is grounded in social and emotional learning (SEL), helping participants build the confidence, resilience, and professional skills needed for future success.
The skills gained through ERTDP and all SmartICE training initiatives are highly transferable and can support pathways into further education, training, and employment.
ERTDP was created with a simple belief: a skilled local workforce can build technology for the North, in the North.
Faq
How does SmartICE work with communities?
SmartICE works with communities across northern Canada to support community-based ice monitoring and mapping. Our approach looks different in each community and is shaped by local priorities and needs.
In communities with Community Management Committees (CMCs), these groups work alongside SmartICE to identify monitoring priorities, determine where technology is deployed, and guide local monitoring activities. Where a CMC is not established, SmartICE works with other local governance partners, such as hamlets and Hunters and Trappers Organizations (HTOs).
By working alongside local partners, SmartICE brings Indigenous and local knowledge together with monitoring technology and technical expertise.
What is a Community Management Committee (CMC)?
A CMC is a local governance group that helps guide SmartICE activities. CMCs include Elders, local ice experts, youth, representatives from local organizations, and other community members. They help identify monitoring priorities, guide where monitoring takes place, and ensure activities reflect local knowledge, priorities, and needs.
CMCs also work with SmartICE Knowledge Coordinators to co-develop ice safety resources for their communities. These resources bring together local and Indigenous knowledge with SmartICE mapping information to provide practical information about ice conditions and travel routes.
What kind of training does SmartICE provide?
SmartICE provides training as part of our community-based ice monitoring services, helping communities build the skills and knowledge needed to operate, manage, and lead their own monitoring and mapping activities. Training can include on-ice monitoring and equipment operation, oOccupational health and safety, on ice safety, first aid, GIS and digital mapping, satellite imagery interpretation, community knowledge co-production, technology development, and employment readiness.
Training opportunities are tailored to community needs and can support different roles, from seasonal ice monitoring and equipment operation to mapping, research, and community knowledge coordination.
How does SmartICE support local employment and leadership?
SmartICE creates opportunities for community members to develop technical, operational, research, and leadership skills. These pathways help communities build local capacity to operate monitoring technology, produce co-designed products, and participate in technology development.