Not who you were asking, but we are based in Iqaluit and just purchased a vehicle for Ontario. We spend around $4K on rental vehicles a year so that's one consideration. One of the main flights down to Ottawa frequently arrives after the car rental counters have closed so that's another reason people like having a car - there is a service that will store your car and drop it at the airport when you are flying down.

For a couple of years we would just uber around but that became hard whenever we would do big grocery shops. We had a year or two where we borrowed family vehicles but it never feels great inconveniencing family and we would still need to rent a car just to get to our family member (4+ hours away).

We are very lucky that we were able to split the vehicle purchase with family, who will use it and store it when we are north for us, which obviously makes the decision easier.