Air search for Nunavut MLA Pauloosie Keyootak cost $339K

The federal and territorial governments spent a combined $339,139.70on planes and helicopters in the search and rescue of Nunavut MLA Pauloosie Keyootak and two others this spring.

The Government of Nunavut spent just over $75,000 and the restwasspentby the Canadian Armed Forces.

Keyootak, his son and nephew leftIqaluitin mid-March on two snowmobiles on their way toQikiqtarjuaqwith a planned stop inPangnirtung.

When the group failed to make it toPangnirtung, a ground search was started on March 27. Civilian and military air crews joined the search in the following days.

• Nunavut MLA was about to lose hope when rescuers found him on Baffin Island

The group was found onMarch 31,183 kilometres south ofIqaluiton the Hall Peninsula. They had gotten turned around inbad weather and a GPS system on asmartphoneled them further astray. They were not carryinga SPOT device or asatellite phone.

In an email to CBC News, a Canadian Armed Forces spokesperson saidthe approximate total incremental cost was $263,632.57for "CH-149 Cormorant and CC-130 Hercules Search and Rescue aircraft fuel consumption, accommodation and temporary duty allowances for aircrew and aircraft landing fees" from March 29 to 31.

Capt.Jamie Donovan said"the lion's share" of that was spent on fuel approximately $231,000.

The aircraft were dispatched from the 413 Squadronin Greenwood, N.S., and the 103 Squadron in Gander, N.L.,by theJoint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax.

'Business as usual'

Nunavut spent more on theair search and rescue ofKeyootak'sgroupthan on all air searches in the 2014-2015 fiscal year combined.

According to theNunavutEmergency Management Annual Report for that year, the total spent on air searchesin 2014-2015 was$63,835.54.

It cost $75,507.33 to chartera deHavillandTwin Otter fromKennBorekAir Limited and aSikorskyS-61Nhelicopter from Canadian Helicopters to take part in the search and rescue ofKeyootak.

The Twin Otter was used throughout the week, carryingCivil Air Search and Rescue Association volunteer spotters.

It was a spotter on the Twin Otter who saw the snowmobile tracks left by Keyootak'sgroup on March 31, leading them to the stranded travellers.But when the plane landed, its hydraulic line broke and the plane could not take off again.

An RCAF Cormorant helicopter retrievedKeyootak and his group and the spotters back to Iqaluit. The next day, the Sikorsky S-61N helicopter was chartered to fly a crew out to the Twin Otter to repair it and fly back, saidKris Mullaly, a spokesperson for the Nunavut Department ofCommunity and Government Services.

Even though Keyootak is an MLA, there was no preferential treatment, saidMullaly.

"It was business as usual," he said.

Mullaly saidthe cost of the air search is within the department's operational budget.

The total cost for the ground search for Keyootak'sgroupis still being calculated.