Canadian Arctic Lands
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Northern Canada (), colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
, variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three
territories of Canada Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North America—New Brunswick, N ...
:
Yukon Yukon () is a Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada’s we ...
,
Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...
and
Nunavut Nunavut is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...
. This area covers about 48 per cent of Canada's total land area, but has less than 0.5 per cent of Canada's population. The terms "northern Canada" or "the North" may be used in contrast with ''the far north'', which may refer to the Canadian
Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...
, the portion of Canada that lies north of the
Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circl ...
, east of
Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...
and west of
Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
. However, in many other uses the two areas are treated as a single unit.


Capitals

The capital cities of the three northern territories, from west to east, are: *
Yukon Yukon () is a Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada’s we ...
-
Whitehorse Whitehorse () is the capital of Yukon, and the largest city in Northern Canada. It was incorporated in 1950 and is located at kilometre 1426 (Historic Mile 918) on the Alaska Highway in southern Yukon. Whitehorse's downtown and Riverdale areas ...
*
Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...
-
Yellowknife Yellowknife is the capital, largest community, and the only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the outlet of t ...
*
Nunavut Nunavut is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...
-
Iqaluit Iqaluit is the capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. It is the territory's largest community and its only city, and the northernmost city in Canada. It was known as Frobisher Bay from 1942 to 1987, after the large bay on the coast on ...


Definitions


Subdivisions

As a social rather than political region, the Canadian North is often subdivided into two distinct regions based on climate, the ''near north'' and the ''far north''. The different climates of these two regions result in vastly different vegetation, and therefore very different economies, settlement patterns and histories.


Near north

The "near north" or
sub-Arctic The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic, north of hemiboreal regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Fennoscandia, Northwestern Russia, Siberia, and the Cair ...
is mostly synonymous with the
Canadian boreal forest Canada's boreal forest is a vast region comprising about one third of the circumpolar boreal forest that rings the Northern Hemisphere, mostly north of the 50th parallel. Other countries with boreal forest include Russia, which contains the majo ...
, a large area of
evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...
-dominated forests with a
subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a continental climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of ...
. This area has traditionally been home to the
Indigenous peoples of the Subarctic Indigenous peoples of the Subarctic are the Aboriginal peoples who live in the Subarctic regions of the Americas, Asia, and Europe, located south of the true Arctic at about 50°N to 70°N latitude. This region includes the interior of Alaska ...
, that is the
First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...
, who were
hunters Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...
of
moose The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is also the tal ...
, freshwater
fishers Fisher is an archaic term for a fisherman, revived as gender-neutral. Fisher, Fishers or The Fisher may also refer to: Places Australia * Division of Fisher, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives, in Queensland *Elec ...
and trappers. This region was heavily involved in the
North American fur trade The North American fur trade is the (typically) historical Fur trade, commercial trade of furs and other goods in North America, beginning in the eastern provinces of French Canada and the northeastern Thirteen Colonies, American colonies (soon- ...
during its peak importance, and is home to many
Métis people The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They hav ...
who originated in that trade. The area was mostly part of
Rupert's Land Rupert's Land (), or Prince Rupert's Land (), was a territory in British North America which comprised the Hudson Bay drainage basin. The right to "sole trade and commerce" over Rupert's Land was granted to Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), based a ...
under the nominal control of the
Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...
(HBC) from 1670 to 1869, who regarded Rupert's Land as their proprietary colony. In 1670,
King Charles II of England Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651 and King of England, Scotland, and King of Ireland, Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685. Charles II was the eldest su ...
in his grant creating the proprietary colony Rupert's Land defined its frontiers as all the lands adjudging
Hudson Strait Hudson Strait () in Nunavut links the Atlantic Ocean and the Labrador Sea to Hudson Bay in Canada. This strait lies between Baffin Island and Nunavik, with its eastern entrance marked by Cape Chidley in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nunavut ...
,
Hudson Bay Hudson Bay, sometimes called Hudson's Bay (usually historically), is a large body of Saline water, saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of . It is located north of Ontario, west of Quebec, northeast of Manitoba, and southeast o ...
or rivers flowing into Hudson Bay, in theory giving control of much of what is now Canada to the HBC. Under the royal charter of 2 May 1670, the HBC received the theoretical control of making up 40% of what is now Canada. Despite its claim that Rupert's Land was a proprietary colony, the HBC controlled only the areas around its forts (
trading posts A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory in European and colonial contexts, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically a trading post allows people from one geograp ...
) on the shores of
James Bay James Bay (, ; ) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. It borders the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, and is politically part of Nunavut. Its largest island is Akimiski Island. Numerous waterways of the ...
and Hudson Bay, and never sought to impose political control on the First Nations peoples, whose co-operation was needed for the fur trade. For its first century, the HBC never ventured inland, being content to have the First Nations peoples come to its forts to trade fur for European goods. The HBC started to move inland only in the late 18th century to assert its claim to Rupert's Land in response to rival fur traders coming out of
Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
who were hurting profits by going directly to the First Nations. The HBC's claim to Rupert's Land, which, as the company was the de facto administrator, included the
North-Western Territory The North-Western Territory was a region of British North America extant until 1870 and named for where it lay in relation to Rupert's Land. Because of the lack of development, exploration, and cartographic limits of the time, the exact boun ...
, was purchased by the Canadian government in 1869. After buying Rupert's Land, Canada renamed the area it had purchased the
Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...
. Shortly thereafter the government made a series of treaties with the local First Nations regarding land title. This opened the region to non-Native settlement, as well as to forestry, mining, and oil and gas drilling. In 1896, gold was discovered in the Yukon, leading to the Klondike Gold Rush in 1896-1899, and the first substantial white settlements were made in the near north. To deal with the increased settlement in the Klondike, the Yukon Territory was created in 1898. Today several million people live in the near north, around 15% of the Canadian total. Large parts of the near north are not part of Canada's territories, but rather are the northern parts of the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, meaning they have very different political histories as minority regions within larger units. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Canada reduced the size of the Northwest Territory by carving new provinces out of it such as Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, together with the new territory of the Yukon, while transferring other parts of the Northwest Territory to Ontario and Quebec.


Far north

The "far north" is synonymous with the areas north of the
tree line The tree line is the edge of a habitat at which trees are capable of growing and beyond which they are not. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually low ...
: the Barren Grounds and
tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...
. This area is home to the various sub-groups of the
Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...
, a people unrelated to other
Indigenous peoples in Canada Indigenous peoples in Canada (also known as Aboriginals) are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples within the boundaries of Canada. They comprise the First Nations in Canada, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis#Métis people in ...
. These are people who have traditionally relied mostly on hunting
marine mammal Marine mammals are mammals that rely on marine ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as cetaceans, pinnipeds, sirenians, sea otters and polar bears. They are an informal group, unified only by their reliance on marine enviro ...
s and
caribou The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only represe ...
, mainly
barren-ground caribou The barren-ground caribou (''Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus''; but subject to a recent taxonomic revision) is a subspecies of the reindeer (or the caribou in North America) that is found in the Canadian territories of Nunavut and the Northwest ...
, as well as fish and migratory birds. The Inuit lived in groups that pursued a
hunter-gatherer A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...
lifestyle, with a basic governmental system in which power was exercised by the local headman, a person acknowledged to be the best hunter, and the
angakkuq The Inuit angakkuq (plural: ''angakkuit'', Inuktitut syllabics ᐊᖓᑦᑯᖅ or ᐊᖓᒃᑯᖅ; Inuvialuktun: '; , pl. ''angakkut''; Iñupiaq: ''aŋatkuq'') is an intellectual and spiritual figure in Inuit culture who corresponds to a med ...
, sometimes called shamans. This area was somewhat involved in the
fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...
, but was more influenced by the whaling industry.Matthiasson, John S. ''Living on the Land Change Among the Inuit of Baffin Island'' Toronto: University of Toronto Press p.27 Britain maintained a claim to the far north as part of the
British Arctic Territories The British Arctic Territories were a region of British North America, composed of islands to the north of continental North America. They are now known as the Arctic Archipelago. The British claim to the area was based on the discoveries of ...
, and in 1880 transferred its claim to Canada, who incorporated the far north into the Northwest Territories. The Inuit were not aware of the existence of the British Arctic territory claim nor were they aware for some time afterwards that under international law their territories had just been included in Canada. It was not until 1920, when detachments of the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...
(RCMP) started being sent into the far north to enforce Canadian law, that Canadian sovereignty over the region became effective. This area was not part of the early 20th century treaty process, and
aboriginal title Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the Indigenous land rights, land rights of indigenous peoples to customary land, customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty to that land by another Colonization, colonising state. ...
to the land has been acknowledged by the Canadian government with the creation of autonomous territories instead of the
Indian reserve In Canada, an Indian reserve () or First Nations reserve () is defined by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." ...
s of further south. In 1982 a referendum was held to decide on splitting the Northwest Territories. This was followed by the 1992 Nunavut creation referendum, with the majority of the people in the far north voting to leave the Northwest Territories, leading to creation of the new territory of Nunavut in 1999. Very few non-Indigenous people have settled in these areas, and the residents of the far north represent less than 1% of Canada's total population. The far north is also often broken into western and eastern parts and sometimes a central part. The eastern Arctic includes the self-governing territory of Nunavut (much of which is in the true Arctic, being north of the
Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circl ...
), sometimes excluding
Cambridge Bay Cambridge Bay (Inuinnaqtun: Inuktitut syllabics, Inuktitut: ; 2021 Canadian census, 2021 population 1,760; Census geographic units of Canada#Population centres, population centre 1,403) is a Hamlet (place)#Canada, hamlet located on Victoria Is ...
and
Kugluktuk Kugluktuk (, ; Inuktitut syllabics: ; ), known as Coppermine until 1 January 1996, is a hamlet at the mouth of the Coppermine River in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, Canada, on Coronation Gulf, southwest of Victoria Island. It is Nunavut's ...
;
Nunavik Nunavik (; ; ) is an area in Canada which comprises the northern third of the province of Quebec, part of the Nord-du-Québec region and nearly coterminous with Kativik. Covering a land area of north of the 55th parallel, it is the homelan ...
, an autonomous part of the province of Quebec;
Nunatsiavut Nunatsiavut (; ) is an autonomous area claimed by the Inuit in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The settlement area includes territory in Labrador extending to the Quebec border. In 2002, the Labrador Inuit Association submitted a proposal for ...
, an autonomous part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador; and perhaps a few parts of the
Hudson Bay Hudson Bay, sometimes called Hudson's Bay (usually historically), is a large body of Saline water, saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of . It is located north of Ontario, west of Quebec, northeast of Manitoba, and southeast o ...
coast of Ontario and Manitoba. The western Arctic is the northernmost portion of the Northwest Territories (roughly
Inuvik Region The Inuvik Region or ''Beaufort Delta Region'' is one of List of regions of the Northwest Territories, five administrative regions in the Northwest Territories of Canada. According to Municipal and Community Affairs the region consists of eig ...
) and a small part of Yukon, together called the
Inuvialuit Settlement Region The Inuvialuit Settlement Region, abbreviated as ISR (; ), located in Canada's western Arctic, was designated in 1984 in the Inuvialuit Final Agreement by the Government of Canada for the Inuvialuit (''the real people''). It spans , including ...
, and sometimes includes Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk. The central Arctic covers the pre-division Kitikmeot Region, Northwest Territories.


Territoriality

Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60°W and 141°W longitude, extending all the way north to the
North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...
: All islands in the
Arctic Archipelago The Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago lying to the north of the Canadian continental mainland, excluding Greenland (an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, which is, by itself, much larger ...
and Herschel, off the Yukon coast, form part of the region and are Canadian territory, and the
territorial waters Territorial waters are informally an area of water where a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potentially the extended continental shelf ( ...
claimed by Canada surround these islands. Views of territorial claims in this region are complicated by disagreements on legal principles. Canada and the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
/
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
have long claimed that their territory extends according to the
sector principle The sector principle, also known as the sector theory, is a principle in international law which asserts that territorial claims in the polar regions should be determined by longitude lines. The territories are thus divided into wedge-shaped sect ...
to the North Pole. The United States does not accept the sector principle and does not make a sector claim based on its
Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...
n Arctic coast. Claims that undersea geographic features are extensions of a country's
continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an islan ...
are also used to support claims; for example the Denmark/
Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
claim on territory to the North Pole, some of which is disputed by Canada. Foreign ships, both civilian and military, are allowed the right of
innocent passage Innocent passage is a concept in the law of the sea that allows for a vessel to pass through the territorial sea (and certain grandfathered internal waters) of another state, subject to certain restrictions. The United Nations Convention on the Law ...
through the territorial waters of a
littoral The littoral zone, also called litoral or nearshore, is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely i ...
state subject to conditions in the
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international treaty that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. , 169 sov ...
. The right of innocent passage is not allowed, however, in
internal waters According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a nation's internal waters include waters on the side of the baseline of a nation's territorial waters that is facing toward the land, except in archipelagic states. It includes wa ...
, which are enclosed bodies of water or waters landward of a chain of islands. Disagreements about the sector principle or extension of territory to the North Pole and about the definition of internal waters in the Arctic lie behind differences in
territorial claims in the Arctic The Arctic consists of land, internal waters, territorial seas, exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and international waters above the Arctic Circle (66 degrees 33 minutes North latitude). All land, internal waters, territorial seas and EEZs in the ...
. This claim is recognized by most countries with some exceptions, including the United States; Denmark, Russia, and Norway have made claims similar to those of Canada in the Arctic and are opposed by the European Union and the United States. This is especially important with the
Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, near the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic ...
, which Canada asserts control of as part of
Canadian Internal Waters In Canadian law, Canadian Internal Waters are the waters "on the landward side of the baselines of the territorial sea of Canada". Definition The baselines are defined as "the low-water line along the coast or on a low-tide elevation that is situ ...
because it is within of Canadian islands; however, the United States claims that it is in
international waters The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed region ...
. As of 2023, ice and freezing temperatures have always made this a minor issue, but
climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
may make the passage more accessible to shipping. Furthermore, the thawing of the polar ice cap increases the mutual proximity of Canada and Russia as a result of the historically unusable Arctic Ocean becoming increasingly navigable.


Demographics

Using the political definition of the three northern territories, the north, with an area of , makes up 39.3% of Canada. Although vast, the entire region is very sparsely populated. As of 2021, only about 118,160 people lived there, compared with 36,991,981 in the rest of Canada. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
for Northern Canada is ( for Yukon, for the NWT and for Nunavut), compared with for Canada. The region is heavily endowed with natural resources, but in most cases they are very expensive to extract and situated in fragile environmental areas. Though GDP per person is higher than elsewhere in Canada, the region remains relatively poor, mostly because of the extremely high cost of most consumer goods, and the region is heavily subsidised by the
government of Canada The Government of Canada (), formally His Majesty's Government (), is the body responsible for the federation, federal administration of Canada. The term ''Government of Canada'' refers specifically to the executive, which includes Minister of t ...
. As of 2016, 53.3% of the population of the three territories (23.3% in Yukon, 50.7% in the NWT and 85.9% in Nunavut) is Indigenous,
Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...
,
First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...
or
Métis The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They ha ...
. The Inuit are the largest group of
Indigenous peoples in Northern Canada The Indigenous peoples in Northern Canada consist of the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit located in Canada's three territories: Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon. Northwest Territories Nunavut All communities in Nunavut are Inuit. The ...
, and 53.0% of all Canada's Inuit live in Northern Canada, with Nunavut accounting for 46.4%. The region also contains several groups of First Nations, who are mainly
Dene The Dene people () are an Indigenous group of First Nations who inhabit the northern boreal, subarctic and Arctic regions of Canada. The Dene speak Northern Athabaskan languages and it is the common Athabaskan word for "people". The term ...
, with the
Chipewyan The Chipewyan ( , also called ''Denésoliné'' or ''Dënesųłı̨né'' or ''Dënë Sųłınë́'', meaning "the original/real people") are a Dene group of Indigenous Canadian people belonging to the Athabaskan language family, whose ancest ...
making up the largest sub-group. The three territories each have a greater proportion of Aboriginal inhabitants than any of Canada's provinces. There are also many more recent immigrants from around the world; of the territories, Yukon has the largest percentage of non-Aboriginal inhabitants, while Nunavut the smallest. , the largest settlement in Northern Canada is
Whitehorse Whitehorse () is the capital of Yukon, and the largest city in Northern Canada. It was incorporated in 1950 and is located at kilometre 1426 (Historic Mile 918) on the Alaska Highway in southern Yukon. Whitehorse's downtown and Riverdale areas ...
, the capital of Yukon, with 28,201 inhabitants. Second is
Yellowknife Yellowknife is the capital, largest community, and the only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the outlet of t ...
, the capital of the Northwest Territories, which contains 20,340 inhabitants. Third is
Iqaluit Iqaluit is the capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. It is the territory's largest community and its only city, and the northernmost city in Canada. It was known as Frobisher Bay from 1942 to 1987, after the large bay on the coast on ...
, the capital of Nunavut, with 7,429.


Recent

Although it has not been on the same scale, some towns and cities have experienced population increases not seen for several decades before.
Yellowknife Yellowknife is the capital, largest community, and the only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the outlet of t ...
has become the centre of
diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...
production for Canada (which has become one of the top three countries for diamonds). In the
2006 Canadian Census The 2006 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population. Census day was May 16, 2006. The following census was the 2011 census. Canada's total population enumerated by the 2006 census was 31,612,897. This count was lower t ...
, the three territories posted a combined population of over 100,000 for the first time in Canadian history.


Topography (geography)

While the largest part of the Arctic is composed of permanent ice and the
Canadian Arctic tundra The Canadian Arctic tundra is a biogeography, biogeographic designation for Northern Canada's terrain generally lying north of the tree line or Taiga, boreal forest, that corresponds with the Scandinavian Montane Birch forest and grasslands, Sca ...
north of the
tree line The tree line is the edge of a habitat at which trees are capable of growing and beyond which they are not. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually low ...
, it encompasses geological regions of varying types: The
Innuitian Mountains The Innuitian Mountains are a mountain range in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, Canada. They are part of the Arctic Cordillera and are largely unexplored, due to the hostile climate. They are named after the northern indigenous people, th ...
, associated with the
Arctic Cordillera The Arctic Cordillera is a terrestrial ecozone in northern Canada characterized by a vast, deeply dissected chain of mountain ranges extending along the northeastern flank of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago from Ellesmere Island to the northe ...
mountain system, are geologically distinct from the Arctic Region (which consists largely of
lowlands Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland. Definitions Upland and lowland are portions of a ...
). The
Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...
and
Hudson Bay Lowlands The Hudson Bay Lowlands is a vast wetland located between the Canadian Shield and southern shores of Hudson Bay and James Bay. Most of the area lies within the province of Ontario, with smaller portions reaching into Manitoba and Quebec. Many wide ...
comprise a substantial part of the geographic region often considered part of the
Canadian Shield The Canadian Shield ( ), also called the Laurentian Shield or the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), th ...
(in contrast to the sole geological area). The ground in the Arctic is mostly composed of
permafrost Permafrost () is soil or underwater sediment which continuously remains below for two years or more; the oldest permafrost has been continuously frozen for around 700,000 years. Whilst the shallowest permafrost has a vertical extent of below ...
, making construction difficult and often hazardous, and agriculture virtually impossible. The Arctic watershed (or drainage basin) drains northern parts of Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia, most of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, and parts of Yukon into the
Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...
, including the
Beaufort Sea The Beaufort Sea ( ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Alaska, and west of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The sea is named after Sir Francis Beaufort, a Hydrography, hydrographer. T ...
and
Baffin Bay Baffin Bay (Inuktitut: ''Saknirutiak Imanga''; ; ; ), located between Baffin Island and the west coast of Greenland, is defined by the International Hydrographic Organization as a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is sometimes considered a s ...
. With the exception of the
Mackenzie River The Mackenzie River (French: ; Slavey language, Slavey: ' èh tʃʰò literally ''big river''; Inuvialuktun: ' uːkpɑk literally ''great river'') is a river in the Canadian Canadian boreal forest, boreal forest and tundra. It forms, ...
, Canada's longest river, this watershed has been little used for
hydroelectricity Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...
. The
Peace Peace is a state of harmony in the absence of hostility and violence, and everything that discusses achieving human welfare through justice and peaceful conditions. In a societal sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (suc ...
and Athabasca rivers, along with Great Bear and
Great Slave Lake Great Slave Lake is the second-largest lake in the Northwest Territories, Canada (after Great Bear Lake), List of lakes by depth, the deepest lake in North America at , and the List of lakes by area, tenth-largest lake in the world by area. It ...
(respectively the largest and second
largest lakes This is a pair of lists of terrestrial lakes with a surface area of more than approximately , ranked by area, excluding reservoirs and lagoons. The area of some lakes can vary over time, either seasonally or from year to year. This is especia ...
wholly enclosed within Canada), are significant elements of the Arctic watershed. Each of these elements eventually merges with the Mackenzie so that it thereby drains the vast majority of the Arctic watershed.


Climate


Overview

Under the
Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
, much of mainland Northern Canada has a
subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a continental climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of ...
, with a
tundra climate The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. It is classified as ET according to the Köppen climate classification. It is a climate which at least one month has an average temperature high enough ...
in most of the
Arctic Archipelago The Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago lying to the north of the Canadian continental mainland, excluding Greenland (an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, which is, by itself, much larger ...
and on the northern coasts, and an
ice cap climate An ice cap climate is a polar climate where no mean monthly temperature exceeds . The climate generally covers areas at high altitudes and Polar regions of Earth, polar regions (60–90° north and south latitude), such as Antarctica and some of ...
in some parts of the
Arctic Cordillera The Arctic Cordillera is a terrestrial ecozone in northern Canada characterized by a vast, deeply dissected chain of mountain ranges extending along the northeastern flank of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago from Ellesmere Island to the northe ...
. For more than half of the year, much of Northern Canada is snow- and ice-covered, with some limited moderation by the relatively warmer waters in coastal areas, with temperatures generally remaining below the freezing mark from October to May. During the coldest three months, mean monthly temperatures range from in the southern sections to in the northern sections, although temperatures can go down to . Owing to the dry cold air prevalent throughout most of the region, snowfall is often light. During the short summers, much of Northern Canada is snow free, except for the Arctic Cordillera, which remains covered with snow and ice throughout the year. In the summer months, temperatures average below but may occasionally exceed . Most of the rainfall accumulated occurs in the summer months, ranging from in the northernmost islands to at the southern end of
Baffin Island Baffin Island (formerly Baffin Land), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada, the second-largest island in the Americas (behind Greenland), and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is (slightly smal ...
. Northern Canada's coastline has faced significant changes due to climate change. The annual precipitation as well as the ratio of snow to rain have increased since 1950. Sea ice has decreased in the region, leading to higher summer surface air temperatures. In the Canadian Arctic Archipelago sea ice cover decreased by 2.9% per decade from 1968 to 2008, while in Hudson Bay this decreased by 11.3% per decade. Storms in the Arctic have increased and become more intense.


Politics


Federal politics

The northern territories are represented in the
Parliament of Canada The Parliament of Canada () is the Canadian federalism, federal legislature of Canada. The Monarchy of Canada, Crown, along with two chambers: the Senate of Canada, Senate and the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons, form the Bicameral ...
by 3 Members of Parliament (MPs) in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
(1 from each territory) and 3 senators (1 from each territory). Currently, of the 3 northern MPs in the Commons, 2 are Liberals and the New Democrats hold 1.


See also

*
Arctic policy of Canada The Arctic policy of Canada includes both the foreign policy of Canada in regard to the Arctic region and Canada's domestic policy towards its Northern Canada, Arctic territories. This includes the devolution of powers to the territories. Canada's ...
*
Geography of Canada Canada has a vast geography that occupies much of the continent of North America, sharing a land border with the contiguous United States to the south and the U.S. state of Alaska to the northwest. Canada stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in t ...
*
Northern Alberta Northern Alberta is a geographic region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. An informally defined cultural region, the boundaries of Northern Alberta are not fixed. Under some schemes, the region encompasses everything north of the ce ...
*
Northern Manitoba Northern Manitoba (also known as NorMan or Nor-Man) is a geographic and cultural region of the Canadian province of Manitoba. Manitoba originally encompassed only a small square around the Red River Colony, but it was extended north to the 60th ...
*
Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on p ...
*
Northern Quebec Northern Quebec () is a geographic term denoting the northerly, more remote and less populated parts of the Canada, Canadian province of Quebec.Alexandre Robaey"Charity group works with Indigenous communities to feed Northern Quebec's 'wandering dog ...
*
Northern United States The Northern United States, commonly referred to as the American North, the Northern States, or simply the North, is a geographical and historical region of the United States. History Early history Before the 19th century westward expansion, the ...
*
Northern Saskatchewan The regional designations vary widely within the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. With a total land area of 651,036 square kilometres (251,366 sq mi), Saskatchewan is crossed by major rivers such as the Ch ...
* North American Arctic *
Operation Hurricane (Canada) Operation Hurricane is an annual month-long technical maintenance mission conducted by Canadian Forces personnel in the Canadian Arctic. Each summer, since 1982, Canadian military technicians and support personnel have been deployed by helicopter ...


References


Further reading

* Honderich, John. ''Arctic Imperative: Is Canada Losing the North''? Toronto, Ont.: University of Toronto Press, 1987. xi, 258 p., ill. in b&w with charts, maps, and photos. * Mowat, Farley. ''Canada North'', in series, ''The Canadian Illustrated Library''. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1967. 127, p., copiously ill. in b&w and col. *


External links

*
Conference Board of Canada: Centre for the North

The Papers of Herbert R. Drury on Arctic Canada
at Dartmouth College Library
Gerard Gardner Scientific Observations Records in Arctic Canada and Labrador
at Dartmouth College Library {{Authority control Regions of Canada Regions of the Arctic