Canada Northwest TerritoriesCapital
Yellowknife (Population: 17,275, in 1996) The
country of Canada is divided into ten provinces and three
northern territories. These are the Yukon, the Northwest Territories (NWT), and
Nunavut, a land base inhabited and governed by the Inuit people. Where are the Northwest Territories? Looking on a map, look north from the 60th parallel and you will see it, bordered on the west by the Yukon, on the south by the Canadian prairie provinces, and on the north and east by Nunavut, Canada’s newest territory as of April 1, 1999. With the establishment of Nunavut, the NWT was reduced from more than two million miles to about 1.3 million miles. The NWT, where mining is the primary industry and the numbers of caribou far exceed those of inhabitants (about 40,000), is considered to be one of the last great wilderness areas on earth. Its climate is crisp and very cold and the air is bracing, but the sun shines much of the time. In April 1999, the territory of Nunavut, formerly the eastern and northern part of the Northwest Territories, became an independent entity with its own government. Jack's Polar Bear Collection |