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Nunavut

© David Newman

Canada's provincial and territorial boundaries will change for the first time in 50 years since 1949 when the British Colony of Newfoundland became the Province of Newfoundland (and recently officially changed to Newfoundland and Labrador) and joined confederation. Canada is not getting bigger. Simply this 1st of April, The Northwest Territory will split up and give us Nunavut Territory, in the eastern part of the old North West Territories. The Name Nunavut means "Our Land" in the Inuktitut Language. The Capital of Nunavut will be Iqualuit on Baffin Island.

Almost everything is ready for the creation of the third Canadian Territory. The Population of the soon-to-be-Nunavut is 25,000 inhabitants, of which the majority is Inuit. Of this population, 85 per cent are Inuit. Welfare supports one third of the population and the territory has an unemployment rate of 22 per cent.

The Territory has a 600 million-dollar budget. 90 per cent of the money comes from the federal government.

Nunavut will be the final alteration to the Northwest Territories (sold to Canada in 1870). The first of the NWT changes appeared is Manitoba and the Yukon Territory. In 1905, Alberta and Saskatchewan took a large portion of the Northwest Territories. Since then, it hasn't been changed... Until the 1st of April, that is. Nunavut is created with the Territory's Inuit who have wanted their own Territory for 25 years (mid-1970s).

Arround 1975, the Inuit started making land claims and the rise of Inuit nationalism started. Another reason for the Seperation of NWT is because of the location of Yellowknife, which is a large distance away from most of the Inuit homelands. The new capital was moved far away from Yellowknife to Iqaluit, on Baffin Islands which is close to the distance between BC and Northern Ontario. The Inuit first wanted a separate Homeland for themselves but the federal government refused although they decided to separate the Territory. After much disagreement over the boundary, the federal government decided that the people should vote for the boudary in 1992. With that, Nunavut was given an area of 2.1 million square kilometres, 60 per cent of the Northwest Territories.

On February 5th, 1999, Paul Okalik was chosen first Premier of the Nunuvut Territory. He and fellow legislature members will be sworn in office, April 1st.

Election Day was February 15th to elect the Members of the legislature. There are 19 members and 6 of them were on the NWT assembly. The members do not belong to any party since none exist in the Northwest Territories.

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