Canada's Coast Guard is about to open something it's never had before — an inshore rescue boat station in Canada's North.

The high-speed vessel will be based in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, on the northwestern shores of Hudson's Bay, able to respond to boaters in distress, missing hunters, potentially even plane crashes and major ship emergencies.

The new station augments the current patchwork system of community volunteers and professional resources, which are deployed from as far away as Winnipeg when someone needs to be rescued.

And the new rescue boat will be crewed almost entirely by post-secondary students from Inuit backgrounds, something the young Inuit say will help as Canada attempts to reconcile its past with Indigenous people, including those across the vast Arctic region.