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Nunavut (????) is the largest and newest of the territories
of Canada: it was separated officially from the vast Northwest
Territories on April 1, 1999 via the Nunavut Act (http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/N-28.6/fulltoc.html)
and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act (http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/N-28.7/),
though the actual boundaries were established in 1993.
The capital of Nunavut is Iqaluit (formerly Frobisher Bay)
on Baffin Island in the east. Other major communities include
Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay. Nunavut also includes Ellesmere
Island in the north and the east of Victoria Island in the
west. Nunavut is both the least populated and the largest
of the provinces and territorities of Canada. It has a population
of only about 29,300 (Nunavumiut, sg. Nunavumiuq) spread over
an area the size of Western Europe. If Nunavut were a sovereign
nation, it would be the least densely populated in the world:
nearby Greenland, for example, has almost the same area and
twice the population.
Nunavut means our land in Inuktitut, the language of the
Inuit.
Contents [showhide]
1 History
2 People
3 Geography
3.1 Regions of Nunavut
4 Economy
5 Government
6 See also
7 External links
[edit]
History
The region now known as Nunavut has supported a continuous
population for approximately 4000 years. Most historians also
identify the coast of Baffin Island with the Helluland described
in Norse sagas, so it is possible that the inhabitants of
the region had occasional contact with Norse sailors. For
more information on the earliest inhabitants and explorers
of Nunavut, see Paleoeskimo, Neoeskimo and Helluland.
The recorded history of Nunavut began in 1576. Martin Frobisher,
while leading an expedition to find the Northwest Passage,
thought he had discovered gold ore in what is now known as
Frobisher Bay on the coast of Baffin Island. The ore turned
out to be worthless, but Frobisher made the first recorded
European contact with the Inuit. The contact was hostile,
with Frobisher capturing four Inuit people and bringing them
back to England, where they quickly perished.
Other explorers in search of the elusive Northwest Passage
followed in the 17th century, including Henry Hudson, William
Baffin and Robert Bylot.
In 1976, negotiations for a land claim agreement and the
new territory between the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada and the
federal government began. In April 1982, a majority of Northwest
Territories residents voted in favour of a division, and the
federal government gave a conditional agreement seven months
later. A land claims agreement was reached in September, 1992
and ratified by nearly 85% of the voters in Nunavut. In June
1993 the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act and the Nunavut
Act were passed by the Canadian Parliament, and the transition
was completed on April 1, 1999.
[edit]
People
As of 2004, Nunavut has a population of approximately 28,000,
of whom around 85% are native peoples, primarily Inuit.
[edit]
Geography
The territory covers approximately 1.9 million square kilometers
of land and water including part of the mainland, most of
the Arctic Islands, and all of the islands in Hudson Bay,
James Bay, and Ungava Bay (including the Belcher Islands)
which were formerly attached to the Northwest Territories.
The creation of Nunavut created Canada's only "four
corners", at the intersection of the boundaries of Nunavut,
the Northwest Territories, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, at
60°00' north, 102°00' west, on the southern shore
of Kasba Lake. This is not the tourist spot it might be, as
it is extremely remote and inaccessible, although there is
a marker (albeit an out of date one) at the point, and some
have made the trek.
The highest point in Nunavut is Barbeau Peak on Ellesmere
Island at a height of 2616 m (8583 ft).
Arctic tundra covers virtually all of Nunavut, the only exceptions
being a tiny area in the extreme southwest near the "four
corners" alluded to above, where a marginal taiga forest
exists, and small zones of permanent ice caps, found on some
of the larger Arctic Islands (especially Baffin, Devon and
Ellesmere) at sites having a relatively high elevation.
[edit]
Regions of Nunavut
Some Canadians believe that Nunavut is made up of some of
the former regions of the NWT, separated in their entirety.
This is not the case; the dividing line did not follow region
boundaries, although boundaries have been subsequently finessed
so that three former NWT regions collectively constitute Nunavut.
They serve as census divisions, but have no autonomous governments:
Qikiqtaaluk or Baffin Region
Kivalliq Region (formerly "Keewatin region")
Kitikmeot Region
The former NWT's Baffin region was entirely transferred to
Nunavut. The former Kitikmeot region is mostly in Nunavut,
except two southwestern areas. Likewise, the former Keewatin
region is largely in Nunavut, except a southwestern rectangle.
Fort Smith region and Inuvik region remain census divisions
of the Northwest Territories. A small right triangle of the
former Fort Smith region is in Nunavut now, while none of
the Inuvik region was transferred to Nunavut.
The aforementioned regional divisions are distinct from the
district system of dividing the Northwest Territories that
dated to 1876 and was abolished when Nunavut was created.
Nunavut encompasses the entirety of the District of Keewatin
(which had differing boundaries from the Keewatin/Kivalliq
regions), the majority of the District of Franklin and a small
portion of the District of Mackenzie.
See List of communities in Nunavut.
[edit]
Economy
[edit]
Government
Nunavut's head of state is a Commissioner appointed by the
federal Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.
As in the other territories, the commissioner's role is symbolic
and is analogous to that of a lieutenant-governor. While the
Commissioner is not formally a representative of the Queen
of Canada the role of representing the crown has accrued to
the position.
The members of the unicameral legislative assembly are elected
individually; there are no parties and the legislature is
consensus-based. The head of government, the premier of Nunavut,
is elected by and from among the members of the legislative
assembly.
The territory's first parliament was dissolved on January
16, 2004, with elections scheduled for February 16. See Nunavut
general election, 2004.
Faced by criticism of his policies, Premier Paul Okalik set
up an advisory council of 11 elders, the inuit qaujimajatuquangit,
whose function is to help integrate Inuit culture into the
territory's political decisions.
The territory has an annual budget of $Cdn 700 million, provided
almost entirely by the federal government. Prime Minister
Paul Martin designated support for the Canadian North as one
of his priorities for 2004, with an extra $500 million to
be divided among the three territories.
[edit]
See also
Legislative Assembly of Nunavut
List of Nunavut premiers
List of Nunavut commissioners
List of communities in Nunavut
List of Canadian provincial and territorial symbols
[edit]
External links
Legislative Assembly of Nunavut (http://www.assembly.nu.ca/)
Nunavut Kavamat (http://www.gov.nu.ca/): Official site
Nunavut Tourism (http://www.nunavuttourism.com/)
Nunavut Planning Commission (http://npc.nunavut.ca/)
Nunavut Parks (http://www.nunavutparks.com/)
This article is licensed
under the GNU
Free Documentation License. It uses material from the
Wikipedia
article "Nunavut".
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