Resilience and adaptation of First Nations Communities in Canada to Disappearing Winter Road Infrastructure in a Changing Climate

Specifically, winter roads – comprising seasonally frozen sea, land, lakes, rivers and creeks – are under considerable threat from climate change. These seasonal roads are vital for the affordable transport of heavy equipment, cargo and fuel, but also provide physical connections that foster social and cultural interactions among remote communities (Chiotti and Lavender 2008). In recent decades, climate change has shortened the operational season of winter roads in the northern hemisphere, with the issue particularly acute across the Canadian arctic and sub-arctic (e.g. Mullan et al, 2017). Previous studies have tended to focus on the economic impacts of a shortened winter road season on transporting essential supplies to mines, with much less attention paid to the impacts for social and cultural mobility among communities living in remote locations without all-season infrastructure. In Canada, many such communities are First Nations People, who live across over 630 settlements mostly in northern areas of Ontario and Manitoba. The socio-economic gap between First Nations People and non-indigenous groups in Canada is vast, with almost half of First Nations children living in poverty. Winter roads represent vital seasonal transport routes that provide access to essential supplies needed to build and sustain the livelihoods of First Nations People. With climate change shortening the length of the winter road season, the impacts will be disproportionately felt by First Nations communities. Using a combination of quantitative, qualitative and geospatial methods, this project aims to examine how climate change will impact winter roads that link these remote communities and how First Nations People could adapt to enhance their resilience in a warming world.