SLiCA

www.arcticlivingconditions.org

The Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic (SLiCA) is a project of international scope regarding the objective and subjective living conditions of the Inuit, Saami and Chukchi peoples. Launched in 1997 on the initiative of the statistics office of Greenland, the project brings together researchers and aboriginal associations of other Arctic regions: Alaska; the Northern regions of Norway, Sweden and Finland; the North-west and Far-eastern regions of the Russian Federation. The project was launched in Canada in 1998 under the direction of Professor Gérard Duhaime, with the close collaboration of the national and regional Inuit organizations and Professor Heather Myers of the University of Northern British Columbia, and with the long-term financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

SLiCA is based on an international questionnaire, adjusted to the specificities of each participating region. At the request of the Canadian Inuit organizations, and thanks to the openness of Statistics Canada, the Canadian questionnaire was completely included in the Aboriginal Peoples Survey, of which it formed the Arctic Supplement as from 2001. Thus Canada became the first country participating in SLiCA to obtain results, as it was the only one with such an extensive probability sampling. The Survey was repeated in 2006 by Statistics Canada. Canada is also the only participating country to have at least two rigorously comparable sets of data.

SLiCA sought to measure the objective but also the subjective living conditions of the peoples concerned namely to solve the seeming enigma of their desire to remain in their regions despite sometimes very difficult physical conditions. The survey gave rise to developments in the theories and methodologies, and also improved the empirical comprehension of life in the Arctic.