Why decades of government neglect of Nain Airport is about more than transportation – TheIndependent.ca
August 14, 2025
Government underfunding and broken promises about the services Inuit would have after being relocated from Hebron to Nain are part of the airport’s legacy
In 2019, Nain, the largest Inuit community in Labrador and Newfoundland, was cut off from access to the outside world for two straight weeks. A communications tower that brings landline, internet, and 3G phone services to Nain broke at the same time as thick fog grounded all flights into the community. Contact beyond the community was limited to satellite phones, a technology not everyone can afford. If someone had a heart attack, a broken bone, or some other medical emergency, they would have had to wait it out, or take the Kamutik W ferry to Natuashish or Hopedale—also on Labrador’s north coast—and then fly from one of those communities to Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
Here’s the thing: it never had to be this way. Nain is in this situation because of choices made by the province, decade after decade.
