The Town of Inuvik is organizing a feast to celebrate the service provided by emergency responders.
The event will take place at the Roy ‘Sugloo’ Ipana Memorial Arena inside the Midnight Sun Complex on May 1, which is First Responders Day. It starts at 6pm.
Mayor Peter Clarkson said the arena would provide enough space to accommodate at least 300 people, including town firefighters, RCMP members, healthcare workers, Canadian Rangers, and some contractors who respond to fires.
“We expect quite a few people,” he told Cabin Radio. “This is the first time we’ve done it.”
Clarkson said first responders can enter a draw as part of the event to win two Canadian North return tickets between Inuvik and Edmonton.
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The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, Inuvik Community Corporation, NorthMart and Inuvik MLAs Denny Rodgers and Lesa Semmler are contributing to the event.
More broadly, this week is National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.
The City of Yellowknife and NWT government each issued statements on Monday thanking dispatchers for their work.
The GNWT says its emergency dispatchers received around 17,200 calls in 2023-24, the latest financial year for which data is available. The city says its own dispatchers receive around 6,000 calls each year.
