Team ensures Inuit landing in Montreal get where they need to go

There’s a new team helping to guide Nunavimmiut while they travel to and from the Montreal airport.

With the airport often being the start of homelessness for those travellers, front-line workers from the Reaching Home and Urban Inuit program, organized by Makivvik Corp., want to ensure that won’t be the case anymore.

Program director Joey Partridge is taking care of departures for Air Inuit and Canadian North with his two co-workers.

“We are making sure Inuit are guided, supported and informed properly,” he said. “We are here to interpret and translate as well.”

The team started their work March 4 but the project has been in the works for a year. According to Partridge, the airport is often the first place where Inuit can encounter problems that lead to homelessness.

He has also worked as a liaison officer with Montreal’s homeless community and said there were 100 to 150 Inuit experiencing homelessness in 2021-22.

This is the armband Nunavimmiut should be looking out for if they are ever in need of help at the Montreal airport. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)

That number rose to 350 last year.

“It is a serious number,” Partridge said of the increase. “This is a number that we have never seen before.”

The team of five workers is divided into two groups.

One group works mornings from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., starting their shift at the departure desks for both Air Inuit and Canadian North to help everyone with their flight.

Afterward, they scout around the airport to see if anyone was left behind or is lost. They make their way outside toward Dorval, all the way to Ullivik, the boarding home for medical patients from Nunavik, a distance of nearly three kilometres, picking up anyone who needs help along the way.

The evening team works from 3 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., making their way from Ullivik to the airport, and they take care of arrivals coming from Nunavik.

During the weekend, the same process is done but between 10:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Some questions they may ask are: “Where are you going? Do you have a plan to stay somewhere? If you get lost, do you know where to call?”

“We make sure they are welcomed properly in the city,” said Partridge, “but most importantly, inform them about the dangers.”

Situations that could lead to homelessness vary person to person.

It could be people trying to prey on Inuit by pretending to be taxi drivers or caseworkers. Sometimes it’s miscommunication with charter bus drivers from Ullivik or hotels, or a lack of identification papers.

The team also offers help to people who are released from detention centres or mental health facilities.

Partridge said often these people are only given taxi vouchers or a bus ticket.

“When they get there, they sometimes don’t have [identification], they don’t have a way to get a ticket for themselves,” he said.

If someone is refused a seat on their flight due to a lack of identification, Partridge can help because he has access to the Makivvik Corp. offices. Whenever needed, he can laminate a backup beneficiary card and return it in time for takeoff.

This situation happens often because reprinted identification is accepted when travelling within Nunavik, but the Montreal airport does not accept this type of ID.

And if there is a need to find someone a place to sleep, the team can organize a stay in a hotel room.

“Don’t be shy to come to us if you have a question,” said Partridge. “We try to not leave anyone behind. We want to support everybody as much as possible.”

Cedric Gallant, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunatsiaq News