MONTREAL (AFP) — The Canadian government officially apologized Saturday to an indigenous community for the killing of several hundred sled dogs by police more than half a century ago.

Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Gary Anandasangaree delivered the apology in Nunavik, in northern Quebec province.

“It should not have taken decades for Canada to apologize to Nunavik Inuit for the role the Federal Government played in the dispossession and devastating loss of the sled dogs, who acted as companions and kin,” Anandasangaree said.

According to a 2010 report, more than 1,000 dogs belonging to Nunavik peoples were killed “without taking into consideration the serious and difficult consequences for dog-owners and their families.”

Sled dogs “were essential for their owners’ hunting, fishing and trapping, as well as for the whole community, which depended on the dogs for subsistence and transportation,” said the report, published by a retired judge.

In addition to the official apology, the Canadian government will pay Can$45 million (US$32 million) in compensation.

“The actions and inactions that led to the mass killing of the sled dogs inflicted deep pain and hardship on Inuit families that none should have had to endure,” Anandasangaree said Saturday.

In 2019, the Canadian government also apologized to the Nunavut Inuit for the police killings of sled dogs in an area further north in the province.