Yellowknife (Jan 21/05) - If the snowmobile is the car of the North, the komatik is the irreplaceable cargo trailer.

A team of skilled and knowledgeable Canadian Rangers has been working to produce enough komatiks to supply 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group's planned operations for the next couple of years, according to Capt. Conrad Schubert of the Canadian Armed Forces.

According to Schubert, in a small but representative way, this is what the Canadian Rangers bring to the Canadian Forces: the knowledge of how to live and move on the land.

Ten Rangers from patrols in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories are working in a hangar at the Yellowknife Forward Operating Location to complete the 20 komatiks. Canadian Rangers from Resolute Bay, Nunavut and Holman Island, Northwest Territories, were in Yellowknife to lend their expertise to the task. Rangers also came from Fort Providence to lend their own skills as carpenters.

Ranger Ronald Minoza of Fort Providence says he is now "a veteran builder," having taken part in three similar komatik building sessions, Schubert noted.

Sergeant Alan Pogotak came from Holman Island to supervise the building and says he learned how to build komatiks from his father and has built them "all his life."

Master Cpl. Clyde Kalluk of Resolute Bay also learned how to build komatiks from his father and has been building them for 17 years.

Final assembly calls for all connections on the komatik to be made with rope, so the sled will flex as it passes over rough terrain. Nails, bolts and screws, on the other hand, make for rigid and breakable connections.

Traditional rawhide rope has been replaced by nylon, but the aim and the technique remain the same as they have for generations.

The Canadian Forces bring military know-how to the mission of asserting sovereignty in the North, but that mission cannot be accomplished without the invaluable skill and knowledge of the Canadian Rangers who have lived in the North for generations, Schubert noted.