Canada

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Facts & Figures

AC member since 1996

Active Polar Icebreakers

6 (1 under construction)

Coordinates

Ottawa, ON: 45.4215° N, 75.6972° W
Iqaluit, NU: 63.7467° N, 68.5170° W

Population

Canada: 39.95 million (2024 estimate)
Northern Territories: 142,000

Land Area

Canada: 9.985 million km²
Northern Territories: 4.051 million km²

Coastline

162,000 km

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Defining Canada’s Arctic is not an easy task. Maps published by the Canadian government show a boundary that follows the 60th parallel north, dives abruptly south along the banks of the Hudson Bay, and then cuts back onto land as it crosses northern Quebec and Labrador. This massive swath of land represents over 40% of Canada’s landmass and 25% of the global Arctic. Its size encompasses a surprising geographic diversity, ranging from the Innuitian Region of the High Arctic to the rocky Canadian Shield in Nunavut to the low lying tundra of the Arctic coastal plains. Broadly speaking, it can be divided into two zones: the Arctic and the subarctic. The former is characterized by permafrost, Arctic tundra and polar deserts at high latitudes, while the latter lies to the south of the treeline and consists of boreal forests. While temperatures inevitably range across such a large area, Canada’s North is generally characterized by frigid winters, with averages ranging from -20 °C to -35 °C, and relatively mild summers ranging from 10 °C to 25 °C.

Despite the fact that both biodiversity and communities in Canada’s north are threatened by climate change, the government’s history on environmental issues is a checkered one. Over the last decade Canada’s federal government pulled out of the Kyoto accord, cut funding to research programs, reduced climate change goals and promoted the development of Alberta’s oil sands. Canadian negotiators have even been accused of stalling climate talks internationally. This stands in stark contrast to progressive initiatives undertaken by several provinces—notably B.C., Québec, and formerly Ontario—that have developed carbon tax initiatives, emphasized green energy and even signed agreements with U.S. states without the federal government. Building on these successes, a change in governments at both the federal and provincial levels seems, broadly speaking, to have ushered in a more serious commitment to tackling environmental issues, although the rollbacks in Ontario over the last several years show that progress is not a given. Despite its continued support of Alberta’s oil industry, the Canadian federal government has at the same time earmarked funding for clean and renewable energy and has demonstrated a willingness to cooperatively protect the Arctic environment: among other things, in a 2016 joint statement with the outgoing US administration, Canada, eager to improve its environmental image, declared a freeze on new oil and gas licensing in its Arctic waters.

This page was updated on 1 January 2024. If we have missed anything, please contact info@thearcticinstitute.org

Politically, Canada’s Arctic encompasses the three northern territories—Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut—as well as the northern portions of Québec (Nunavik) and Labrador (Nunatsiavut). Sparsely populated compared to the rest of the country, the region is home to about 142,000 people, representing 0.38% of Canada’s total population. Whitehorse (31,913) and Yellowknife (20,340), the capitals of Yukon and the Northwest Territories respectively, are the two largest cities in the region. Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, is the third largest with a population of 6,991. To give a sense of scale, a majority of Canadians live in a thin line straddling the country’s southern border and are concentrated in the three largest metropolitan areas: Toronto (6.2 million), Montreal (4.29 million) and Vancouver (2.64 million) (2021 census).

According to Statistics Canada, while just over 6% of the Canadian population identifies as having Aboriginal* ancestry, about 4 of every 10 people in the Canadian Arctic do (90% in Nunatsiavut, 91% in Nunavik, 86% in Nunavut, 50% in the Northwest Territories, and 24% in Yukon). Inuit Nunangat—stretching internationally from Alaska in the West to Greenland in the East—is today home to roughly three quarters of all members of the eight main Inuit groups in Canada. Northern Canada is also home to First Nations peoples and Métis whose traditional homelands, like those of the Inuit, are often divided by provincial, territorial, or even international borders; for example, Denendeh, the homeland of the Dene Nation, stretches from Alaska’s north coast east across Canada’s three Territories to nearly the shores of Hudson Bay. Today, the municipalities and hamlets across Canada’s remote north are notable for their vibrant and unique local culture. For example, Cape Dorset in Nunavut has had national and international acclaim as a hub for Inuit artists since the 1950s; further to the west, Yellowknife draws thousands each summer to the Northwest Territories for its folk music festival. In terms of languages, as illustrated by the latest (2021) national census, over 70 Indigenous languages were counted countrywide, about 30 of which being used by people in the Arctic regions. However, in spite of initiatives aimed at language revitalization, the disappearance of many of these languages is a serious concern. While this deeply impacts cultural identity and social well-being, it also translates to an inability for some people to access services like healthcare in their own language: a historic problem in the north that remains today.

Indeed, to say that Indigenous peoples of the Canadian Arctic and the country as a whole are faced with pressing challenges would be an understatement. In 2019, a UN report on Indigenous housing critiqued Canada for the cramped and unsafe conditions under which many Indigenous peoples in Canada are living, including in the Arctic. Rates of substance abuse and domestic violence remain high; poor mental health is another longstanding concern, with youth suicide, among many other things, shaking communities. These issues, as well as others, have added up to what the Correctional Investigator of Canada identified in a January 2020 report as the “historic high” proportion of Indigenous people in the prison system.

However, Indigenous peoples and their allies have been pushing back with determination, with movements like Idle No More keeping the spotlight on the needs of Indigenous communities and the painful burden of ongoing colonialism. With 2008 seeing the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada, which produced in 2015 its reports and calls to action on the country’s legacy of residential schools, more recent years have seen additional significant developments between Indigenous peoples, the federal government, and Canadian settler society. In 2016, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) commenced, releasing their highly anticipated report in 2019 after a fraught three-year process. The report concluded that Canada’s past and present policies and actions amount to genocide; listing 231 recommendations for justice (46 of which are Inuit-specific), among others, it called on Canadian governments to harmonize laws with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and to recognize Indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination. Also in 2016, Canada officially withdrew its objector status from UNDRIP in full support of the declaration; although initial legislative efforts did not succeed, with Bill C-262 failing to pass the Senate in 2019 due to a Conservative filibuster, in 2021, Bill C-15, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, was passed into law. Hailed by some as a sign of progress, the Act has also been criticized by others who argue that it keeps intact the basis of the country’s system of law, the Doctrine of Discovery, which in turn denies the right to Indigenous self-determination. Most recently, in 2022, a year after the country was rocked by multiple discoveries of unmarked graves at former residential school sites, Pope Francis visited Canada, including a stop in Iqaluit, to issue a formal apology for the abuses perpetrated through the residential schools run by the Catholic Church. The Papal visit and apology were met with a spectrum of responses, including rejection for what the apology minimized or omitted altogether; with it being only the most recent milestone in reconciliation, truths will continue to surface as Indigenous peoples in Canada continue to seek justice.

* In the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982, § 35 (2), and consequently in official government publications such as those from Statistics Canada, Aborginal people are legally defined to include those who are First Nations, Inuit, or Métis. While in everyday language the term Aborginal can be used interchangeably with Indigenous, the latter is widely more preferred. The usage of Aboriginal vs. Indigenous here reflects this distinction.

Alongside health and social issues, economic development dominates discussion in the north. Rich in resources ranging from oil and gas to fish and diamonds, the exploitation of these resources is seen by some as a solution to the high levels of unemployment in northern Canada and a path to a higher quality of life. Today mining (diamonds, gold, silver, lead, zinc), the public sector (government, social and health services), and the service industry (including tourism), are the three main sources of employment in Canada’s Arctic. Despite flirting with the idea of oil and gas extraction in the region, commercial exploitation has been slow to materialize due to a lack of infrastructure, environmental concerns, conflicting stakeholder interests, and a moratorium on Arctic offshore oil and gas drilling put in place by the Federal government in 2016. The Norman Wells field in the Northwest Territories remains the only producing oil well in Canada’s Arctic, although production has been suspended since 2017 due to a damaged pipeline.

Another important sector is that of traditional or subsistence economies. These activities are woven into the cultural fabric of many Indigenous communities and continue to play an important role in providing for their livelihoods. Although this aspect of the northern economy is often overlooked by traditional economic studies, Statistics Canada estimates that roughly $40 million dollars of country (traditional) food is produced each year. The importance of these traditional economies resonates at the international level, as evidenced by the dispute between Canada and the European Union over the latter’s ban on the trade of seal derived products. Concerns remain as to the impact of large scale extractive projects on these traditional activities.

Intimately linked to issues of sovereignty and identity, resource development in Canada’s North has long been a priority. Beginning with the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush and continuing throughout the World Wars, Diefenbaker’s drive for development during the 1950s, and the rise of opencast mining in the 1960s, resource development in Canada’s north has been one-part economic development and one-part nation building. Given the low prices of raw materials, the high costs of operation in Canada’s Arctic, a lack of infrastructure, and growing concerns over the environmental impact of these industries, most projects in the works have been put on indefinite hold. The implications of this are felt across many northern communities reliant on extractive industries for employment opportunities. Striking a balance between economic development and a multifaceted approach to sustainability, on the terms set by northern stakeholders, will be one of the key challenges going forward.

The governance of Canada’s Arctic is an important factor to understanding the many dynamics at play in the region. There is a clear constitutional divide between the provinces and territories, with the territories historically being governed by federal officials. This has gradually changed over the past 40 years as federal statutes have established legislative assemblies and executive councils for each territory. Furthermore, the last several decades have seen the gradual devolution of power from Ottawa to the territories, with the result being that they now have policy mandates and responsibilities similar to the provinces. This process is currently the most advanced in Yukon, which in 2003 became the first territory to take over land and resource management responsibilities from the federal government; the Northwest Territories signed its devolution agreement with Ottawa in 2013, and Nunavut followed suit in January 2024. Of note, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Nunatsiavut practice consensus government—a form of consensus democracy where the legislature is entirely composed of independents who select the premier and cabinet members from amongst themselves.

Some Indigenous land claim agreements have also culminated in the creation of various forms of Indigenous self-government: for example, the 1993 Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, which is also the largest Indigenous land claims agreement in Canadian history, created the Territory of Nunavut out of what was previously part of the Northwest Territories in 1999. For political as well as historical reasons, devolution has represented an important and positive change for the territories and Indigenous peoples alike, but the reality is frequently much more complicated: with new political organizations struggling with limited administrative, financial, legal, and technical resources needed for effective self-governance in the context of a highly interdependent global economy, many throughout the country have found it difficult to resist pressures from powerful resource companies. Also, as the experience of the Inuvialuit shows, attaining self-government is a lengthy and arduous process. Although the 1984 Inuvialuit Final Agreement was the first modern comprehensive land agreement to be signed in Canada, it wasn’t until 1995 that Inuvialuit could begin self-government negotiations with Ottawa, because until then, the inherent right of Indigenous peoples to self-govern was not yet recognized in Canada. Currently, Inuvialuit still do not have self-government, although a major milestone was reached in 2015 when the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and the governments of Canada and the Northwest Territories signed the Self-Government Agreement-in-Principle, which now forms the basis of present ongoing negotiations for a Final Agreement.

Canada is also actively involved in Arctic governance at the international level, signaling a deepening commitment to the region in 1994 with its designation of an Ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs. Being a strong supporter of Inuit efforts to deepen international Indigenous cooperation in the 1980s and 1990s meant that it played an instrumental role in the founding of the Arctic Council, taking on the inaugural chairmanship during which it led the development of the Council’s structure and working procedures. Canada finished its second chairmanship in 2015 during which it promoted economic development and founded the Arctic Economic Council. Echoing the other Arctic countries, and despite strong rhetoric in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, Canada’s Arctic policies have continued to emphasize cooperation in the region, although claiming budgetary reasons, Ottawa cut the circumpolar ambassadorship in 2006. Canada’s legal interpretation of the Northwest Passage as internal waters rather than an international strait is also a decades-old point of friction between it and its southern neighbor. Although this tension has found more or less equilibrium in the form of a more or less friendly stalemate, unless Canada is able to reliably demonstrate its sovereignty in the vast and remote waterway, the continued uptick in ships plying its less-icy but still dangerous waters could potentially shift the balance. While there also remains a dispute between the two countries in the Beaufort Sea, in June of 2022, Canada and its other neighbor, Greenland (Denmark), signed an agreement to settle a half-century-old dispute over the nationality of Hans Island/Tartupaluk, creating a land border between the two countries and putting a final end to the ‘Whisky War.’

In May 2019, Canada submitted to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) its long-awaited partial submission concerning its continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean. Now overlapping with the earlier submissions of Denmark and Russia at the Lomonosov Ridge and the symbolic North Pole, at the same time, Canada stressed its regular consultations with them, as well as with the US, throughout the preparation period of over a decade. With the CLCS review process being lengthy, as well as in light of the fact that the boundaries will ultimately be negotiated by the countries themselves, the international cooperative enterprise of determining the legal limits of the continental shelves in the Arctic Ocean is far from over.

Canada is party to the Arctic Search and Rescue Agreement and the Agreement on Cooperation on Marine Oil Pollution, Preparedness and Response in the Arctic, both negotiated under the auspices of the Arctic Council. An ‘Arctic five’ country, Canada joined Denmark, Norway, Russia, and the United States in signing the 2015 Declaration Concerning the Prevention of Unregulated High Seas Fishing in the Central Arctic Ocean. In 2018, the Arctic five, plus China, the EU, Iceland, Korea, and Japan, signed the Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean, which went into force in June 2021.

After the hawkish tone of Canada’s Arctic policy under nearly a decade of Conservative leadership by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which came to power in 2015, has in some respects shifted its approach to its North. While in some ways, the Trudeau government’s priorities in the Arctic haven’t changed all that much from its predecessor’s, its shift towards co-governance with Indigenous nations from devolution does represent a departure. 2017 saw the creation of the Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee, a permanent organization with a mandate to advance interests shared between Inuit and the Canadian state; in 2023, the landmark Western Arctic—Tariuq (Offshore) Accord was signed between the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, NWT, Yukon, and the Canadian Federal government, making it the first of its kind to have an Indigenous government as full party to decision making on natural resources; and, emphasizing that policy development is being undertaken “with” northerners rather than “for” them, Canada is also currently giving its Arctic policy an overhaul to replace the nearly decade-old one. However, it remains to be seen how—and to what extent—political will translates ideas to real benefits for northerners, especially Indigenous peoples.

However, with a rapidly changing environment bringing more human activity—especially tourism—to its massive and remote north, security remains firmly on the radar for Canada, too, with an accent on high-tech intelligence. While the first Arctic patrol ship, the HMCS Harry DeWolf, finally took its first voyage in 2021, a much-needed new polar-class icebreaker, the CCGS John G. Diefenbaker, remains under construction after lengthy delays; meanwhile, advanced technologies such as satellite geoimaging and UAVs present opportunities for the Department of National Defence to increase surveillance capacities in Canada’s challenging and remote Arctic geography. Filling in the gaps in what Canada knows is happening in its Arctic territories, this would, among other things, facilitate search and rescue capabilities—an evergreen concern for the Arctic Council—but also help Canada keep tabs on naval traffic.