It came much too late to 'unite' (or even help unite) northern Canada.
It did put many dog sled teams out of existence, allowed hunters and trappers to extend the area and region where they worked their trap lines, etc. This brought in more products from these, folk, depleting animal stocks and therefore in the end has caused a drop in the real income of the economy of the north.
Sled dogs often could save a person from incidents and accidents while a snowmobile would just sit there.