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Globe and Mail special highlights Canada’s north

January 20, 2014

The Globe and Mail has extensive coverage on the North in its Saturday edition. It’s worth a read.

Here are a few complementary observations:

1.Vast geography. Astounding that a third of Canada’s landmass only has 100,000 inhabitants.
2.It’s expensive. Food, shelter, automobile, heating. Generally speaking its all much more in the north.
3.Higher wages. Most professionals earn more in the north than in the south.
4.Telecommunications. The east is all served by satellite; the west by a terrestrial network. The costs are much higher generally, and very much so with satellite.
5.There are 2 operating mines in Yukon, 4 in NWT and one in Nunavut.
6.The North is largely funded by federal transfers that amount to about $3.5B/ year.
7.It’s cold. This means a highly seasonal economy exists. Summer in some locales is June-September.
8.First Nations and Inuit people form 25% of the population in Yukon, 50% in NWT and 90% in Nunavut.
9.Energy production is by hydro in Yukon, mixed in NWT and wholly diesel in Nunavut.
10.Land claims and self-government agreements exist for 11/14 Yukon First Nations; 4/7 NWT First Nations organizations and in Nunavut.
11.Most of the tourists come to the Yukon, roughly 336,000 ‘border crossings’ in 2013 by bus, plane, train and car. This is way more than NWT/Nunavut tourism combined.
12.You cannot drive to the Arctic Ocean in the summer. They are just starting to build the road to Tuk from Inuvik.
13.There are no roads into Nunavut.
14.The NWT produces most of North America’s diamonds, about 15% of the world’s supply. The Yukon has Canada’s only silver mine, but it is in shutdown.
15. Beaucoup de monde parle fraincais au Yukon.
16.First Nations and Inuit organizations, their development corporations employ hundreds of people in the north. There are more than 200 entities.

Commentary

Kudos to the Globe for highlighting the north.

Sources

a)http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-north/