Northwest Territories

Administrative division of Canada
Also known as Territoires-du-Nord-Ouest
Total area: 3,426,320 square kilometres (1,322,910 square miles)
Population: 57,649 (1991)
Maximum elevation: 2,762 metres (9,062 feet)
 
 

Northwest Territories, administrative region of Canada, encompassing all the country north of latitude 60° North, except Yukon Territory and the northernmost parts of Quebec and Newfoundland. It is the largest political subdivision within Canada, bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean; on the north-east by Baffin Bay; on the east by Baffin Bay, Davis Strait, and Hudson Bay; on the south by the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia; and on the west by Yukon Territory. The capital and largest city is Yellowknife, located in the south-central part of the territory. The region comprises an extensive mainland, a complex of thousands of islands (usually called the Arctic Islands) extending from the mainland north to within about 800 km (500 mi) of the North Pole, and the islands of Hudson, James, and Ungava bays.

The Northwest Territories was acquired by Canada and entered the confederation on July 15, 1870. Its present boundaries were drawn in 1912; these will change in 1999 when a new territory is carved out, as part of a land-claim agreement with the indigenous people of the area.
 

Land and Resources

The Northwest Territories, with an area of 3,426,320 sq km (1,322,904 sq mi), covers more than one-third of Canada; more than 99 per cent of the land area is owned by the federal government. The area is approximately evenly divided between the continental mainland and the Arctic Islands, 18 of which are larger than Canada's smallest province (Prince Edward Island). The largest of these are Baffin Island, Ellesmere Island, and Victoria Island. The region's extreme dimensions are about 2,700 km (1,680 mi) from north to south and about 2,900 km (1,800 mi) from east to west. Elevations range from sea level to 2,773 m (9,098 ft) atop an unnamed peak near the Yukon border. Barbeau Peak (2,616 m/8,583 ft) on northern Ellesmere Island is the highest point in the Arctic Islands.
The total length of coastline (including islands) is 161,765 km (100,516 mi).
 

Physical Geography

The Northwest Territories encompasses a great variety of surface features. The hilly and rocky Canadian Shield makes up the eastern two-thirds of the mainland region. It is bordered on the west by a northern extension of the low-lying Interior Plains of North America. Farther west this region gives way to the Western Mountain System, a rugged area with peaks averaging about 1,524 m (5,000 ft) in elevation. The Arctic Islands are mountainous in the east, averaging about 1,830 to 2,135 m (6,000 to 7,000 ft) in elevation and containing spectacular ice caps.

The Canadian Shield is dotted with countless lakes, remnants of the ice sheets that once covered the area. At the western edge of the shield region are two of the largest lakes of North America: Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake. These two lakes and most of the western mainland drain north to the Arctic Ocean by the great Mackenzie River. By far the region's most important river, the Mackenzie flows north-west and empties through an extensive delta into Mackenzie Bay.
 

Climate

The climate ranges from subarctic to arctic. Long and very cold winters occur in all places; the mean January temperature is below -28.9° C (-20° F), and -51.1° C (-60° F) is often recorded. Summers in the Arctic Islands and along the continental coast are relatively cool (July average, 4.4° C/40° F) in contrast to the warm temperatures of the Mackenzie Valley and much of the mainland (July average, 15.6° C/60° F). The low temperatures and the ice-sealed waters contribute to the low annual precipitation, which averages 305 mm (12 in) on the mainland. In the Arctic Islands, annual precipitation decreases from 406 mm (16 in) in the south-east to only 51 mm (2 in) in the north and north-west.
 

Plants and Animals

The tree line extends diagonally across the Northwest Territories from the mouth of the Mackenzie south-east to Hudson Bay just south of the Manitoba border. Much of the area south of this line is treeless. Consequently, only about 19 per cent of the total area is forested, and less than a quarter of that is classified as productive. Spruce, pine, birch, and larch are the dominant trees. North of the tree line and at higher elevations is arctic tundra, consisting of low shrubs and grasses.

In the forested areas, typical mammals include caribou, moose, grizzly and black bear, wolf, lynx, beaver, marten, and muskrat. A herd of wood bison is established at Wood Buffalo National Park. In the tundra are caribou, musk ox, polar bear, and arctic fox. Seal, walrus, and narwhal are important sea mammals. Whales, formerly abundant in Arctic waters, have been reduced by hunting to a population dominated by the relatively small beluga whale. Large numbers of migratory birds nest and raise their young during the short arctic summer, flying south in autumn. The region's freshwater fish include lake trout, whitefish, pickerel, northern pike, arctic char, and grayling.
 

Resources, Products, and Industries

Since World War II, minerals have displaced furs as the major economic resource. The Northwest Territories is rich in mineral resources, including gold, silver, uranium, zinc, lead, tungsten, and iron ore. Petroleum and natural gas occur in the Mackenzie Valley. Mining accounts for more than 25 per cent of the annual gross domestic product in the Northwest Territories, while petroleum and natural gas have been extracted since the 1920s.

Agriculture is negligible and forestry is only of limited importance. Lake trout and whitefish are caught commercially. Trapping, although still carried out by some Native Americans, is declining. For many Inuit, handicraft work, such as soapstone carving, is now more important.

The small manufacturing sector is limited to the processing of raw materials.
 

Population

According to the 1991 census, the Northwest Territories had 57,649 inhabitants, an increase of 10.4 per cent over 1986. The overall population density in 1991 was only about 1 person for every 59 sq km (1 per 23 sq mi). The population of the territory is comparatively diverse; it includes approximately 17,500 Inuit and 2,000 other Native Americans, as well as a small number of Métis (people of mixed French and Native American extraction). English was the mother tongue of about 54 per cent of the population; only about 2 per cent had French as their first language.
 

Education and Cultural Institutions

Christian missionaries to the Northwest Territories supplied all the educational facilities until the 1950s, when the Canadian government accepted responsibility for the education of the territories' dispersed population. In 1969 the territorial department of education was created, and in the early 1990s the Northwest Territories had about 80 public elementary and secondary schools with a combined annual enrolment of 15,900 students. Because of the great distances separating small settlements, many of the newer schools were built as centralized residential educational facilities. Arctic College (1969), with its main campus in Yellowknife, has about 500 students.

Because the population in the territories is small and widely distributed, cultural facilities and activities are severely limited. Two museums of note do exist, however: the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife, with exhibits relating to the region's history and culture, and the Northern Life Museum and National Exhibition Centre in Fort Smith, also with displays pertaining to regional history and the Native American and Inuit cultures.
 

Sports and Recreation

Fishing, hunting, and boating are the most popular sports in the Northwest Territories. Four national park areas-Auyuittuq, Ellesmere Island, Nahanni, and Wood Buffalo-provide facilities for additional recreational activities such as camping, hiking, and swimming.
 

Government

The federal government exerts considerable influence over the government of the Northwest Territories. The chief executive of the Northwest Territories is the government leader, who presides over a seven-member executive council (cabinet) and the legislative assembly. Representing the interests of the federal government is a commissioner, who operates under instructions periodically given by the Canadian governor-general in council or by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. The unicameral Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly contains 24 seats. Members of the legislature are popularly elected on a non-partisan basis to serve four-year terms. The Northwest Territories is represented in the Canadian Parliament by one senator appointed by the Canadian governor-general in council and by two members of the House of Commons popularly elected to terms of up to five years.
 

History

Evidence indicates that a variety of aboriginal cultures, including the Dene and the Inuit, existed in the area before the arrival of whites. From around the year 1000 to 1350, Europeans from Greenland and Iceland probably made many landfalls on the eastern shores of the Canadian arctic zone, and it is believed that the Scottish-born explorer Sir Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, landed on Baffin Island in 1398. The first official explorer of the region was the English navigator Sir Martin Frobisher, who claimed Baffin Island for England in 1577. Henry Hudson, John Davis, William Baffin, Luke Foxe, Thomas James, and numerous other English explorers traversed the area of Hudson Bay and many of the northern islands from 1610 to 1632, in search of the North West Passage between Europe and the Orient. In 1670 the Hudson's Bay Company was given a fur-trading charter by the government of England for the entire Hudson Bay drainage area, then known as Rupert's Land. A company employee, the Canadian explorer Henry Kelsey, was the first European to penetrate into the interior of the continent from Hudson Bay.

The Hudson's Bay Company and its rival, the North West Company, were responsible for much of the exploration in the region during the 18th century. Peter Pond, an American explorer in the employ of the North West Company, mapped the region of Great Slave Lake from 1768 to 1788. In 1789 Sir Alexander Mackenzie, a Scottish explorer working for the same company, became the first European to canoe to the Arctic Ocean down the river that now bears his name. Later he headed west and achieved another first, reaching the Pacific Ocean by land. The British explorer Samuel Hearne of the Hudson's Bay Company travelled overland in 1770 and 1771 from Fort Churchill (in what is now Manitoba) to the mouth of the Coppermine River on the Arctic Ocean.

The search for the North West Passage was continued during the 19th century. Many explorers in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company and also many official expeditions sponsored by the British government explored most of the Arctic region from 1800 to 1859. The noted British navigator Sir John Franklin explored more than 3,200 km (2,000 mi) of the Arctic coast. He was lost with his crew while seeking the passage in 1845. The remains of Franklin's ship and crew were not found until 1859; in that interval, about 40 search vessels brought back detailed descriptions of Arctic waters.

In 1870, Rupert's Land and the north-western territory were transferred to Canada by the British government. All the islands in the North American arctic zone that had been claimed by Britain were transferred to Canada in 1880.

Oil was discovered at Norman Wells in 1920, and during World War II oil production was increased greatly under the Canol project, which was sponsored jointly by the United States and Canada. Pitchblende and silver were discovered in 1930 on the eastern shore of Great Bear Lake; the radium and uranium from this ore helped make Canada one of the principal world sources of fissionable material. Gold was discovered in the Yellowknife area in 1933; it remains one of the top four minerals in the territories. The most important mineral development occurred at Pine Point, where the exploitation of large deposits of high-grade zinc and lead ores has vastly increased the value of mineral output.

Since the mid-1960s the territory has experienced a great increase in education facilities and public health and welfare programmes, as well as in resource development. A network of radar warning stations, known popularly as the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line and maintained jointly by the United States and Canada, extends in part across the Arctic Archipelago and its adjacent waters.

The strong demand for crude petroleum and natural gas, as well as the lack of major new discoveries in the western provinces, prompted exploration along the Canadian frontier in the early 1970s. Major oil and gas discoveries were made in the Mackenzie River delta near Tuktoyaktuk and on Ellef Ringnes, Melville, and several other islands in the Arctic. A Canadian-United States accord of April 20, 1977, permitting construction of the Alcan natural-gas pipeline from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, through the Yukon Territory to the lower United States, was a victory for environmentalists and indigenous peoples of the Northwest Territories. They had influenced the defeat of an alternate route, along the Mackenzie River.

Politically, the Northwest Territories has exercised increasing autonomy since the seat of government was transferred from Ottawa to Yellowknife in 1967. Under a plan announced in December 1991 and approved by referendum in May 1992, about 2 million sq km (772,000 sq mi) will be carved from the central and eastern part of the Northwest Territories to create Nunavut (Inuktitut for "our land"), a new political subdivision governed by the Inuit. Nunavut will become a separate Canadian territory in 1999.