Fort Providence RCMP Cst Andrew Nunez has received an award for his contributions to the community from a national women’s charity.
NWT RCMP say Cst Nunez recently received the 2026 RCMP Community Relations Award from Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire Canada.
Nunez found out he had won the award through a text from his boss, unaware he had even been nominated. He said winning was a “humbling experience.”
Nunez receive the award for community service he performed while injured for 11 months. Typically, when officers are injured, they’re assigned to light duties or completely off duty. Nunez had a different approach.
“I wanted to do stuff for the community while I was still in the community, so I asked them to see if I could volunteer, because one of the things that this community was missing was doing a lot of community programs,” said Nunez.
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He started organizing community meetings, gathering volunteers and planning events.
“I wanted the community to voice out their ideas, and my job was just to develop and plan these ideas,” said Nunez.
Those ideas included a Christmas Day parade, described as the first of its kind for the town of 700 residents. Twenty cars became parade floats.
“Andrew was so devoted to the Christmas spirit that he actually went out and purchased his own Grinch costume,” said Nunez’s boss, Sgt Kevin Devoe. “He acted as the Grinch, quite the opposite of what he was trying to do.”
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With a history of residential school trauma and more recently substance abuse, Devoe says some Fort Providence residents can struggle at times. Two things Devoe tries to promote on a daily basis, he said, are to “act in accordance with reconciliation [and] try to resolve the conflict at the lowest level.”
“This award that was granted to Andrew is validation of the work that continues to go on in Fort Providence,” said Devoe, describing Nunez as someone well respected in the community.
For Nunez, being called by his name rather than being called a cop was an important distinction he made while doing community outreach.
“Some of the community members started calling me by my first name,” he said.
“To see me as a human being, not just a robot… that was really neat to see.”
