Nunavik

Concern about Canada's claims to sovereignty in the high Arctic resulted in the high Arctic relocation, where the federal government of Canada forced several Inuit families to leave Nunavik in the 1950s. They were transported much further north, to barren hamlets at Grise Fiord and Resolute in what is now Nunavut in an effort to demonstrate Canada's legal occupation of these territories and thereby assert sovereignty in the high Arctic by increasing its population during the Cold War. Eight Inuit families from Inukjuak (on the Ungava Peninsula) were relocated after being promised homes and game to hunt, but the relocated people discovered no buildings and very little familiar wildlife.[7] They were told that they would be returned home to Nunavik after a year if they wished, but this offer was later withdrawn as it would damage Canada's claims to sovereignty in the High Arctic area and the Inuit were forced to stay. Eventually, the Inuit learned the local beluga whale migration routes and were able to survive in the area, hunting over a range of 18,000 km² (6,900 sq mi) each year.[8]

In 1993, the Canadian government held hearings to investigate the relocation program. The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples issued a report the following year entitled The High Arctic Relocation: A Report on the 1953–55 Relocation.[9] The government paid $10 million CAD to the survivors and their families, and finally apologized in 2010.[10] The whole story is told in Melanie McGrath's The Long Exile: A Tale of Inuit Betrayal and Survival in the High Arctic.[11]

Nunavik and other parts of northern Quebec were part of Northwest Territories from 1870 to 1912. In 1912, the area was transferred to Quebec; however, the province did little in the area until after the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s.[12] In the 1960s, René Lévesque played a major role in expansion of hydroelectric power in the province. The region was named "Nouveau-Québec", many place names were francized, and the teaching of French was spread in schools in the region. This cultural encroachment paired with the James Bay Project resulted in the first political organizing of Inuit in Canada in the Northern Quebec Inuit Association which fought for the eventual James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement.[12] This agreement laid the initial legal groundwork for the creation of Nunavik within Quebec.

Nunavik is a vast territory located in the northernmost part of Quebec. It lies in both the Arctic and subarctic climate zones. All together, about 12,000 people live in Nunavik's communities, and this number has been growing in line with the tendency for high population growth in indigenous communities.[13]

Nunavik is separated from the territory of Nunavut by Hudson Bay to the west and Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay to the north. Nunavik shares a border with the Côte-Nord region of Quebec and the Labrador region of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Ungava Peninsula forms the northern two-thirds of the region. There are no road links between Nunavik and southern Quebec, although the Trans-Taiga Road of the Jamésie region ends near the 55th parallel on the Caniapiscau Reservoir, several hundred kilometres south of Kuujjuaq. There is a year-round air link to all villages and seasonal shipping in the summer and autumn. Parts of the interior of southern Nunavik can be reached using several trails which head north from Schefferville.

Proposed Nunavik flag

Nunavik has fourteen villages, the vast majority of whose residents are Inuit.[14] The principal village and administrative centre in Nunavik is Kuujjuaq, on the southern shore of Ungava Bay; the other villages are Inukjuak (where the film Nanook of the North was shot), Salluit, Puvirnituq, Ivujivik, Kangiqsujuaq, Kangiqsualujjuaq, Kangirsuk, Tasiujaq, Aupaluk, Akulivik, Quaqtaq, Kuujjuarapik and Umiujaq. The village population (census 2011) ranges from 2,375 (Kuujjuaq) to 195 (Aupaluk).

There are five meteorite craters in Nunavik: Pingualuit crater, Couture crater, La Moinerie crater and the two craters that together form the Clearwater Lakes.

Nunavik is dominated by tundra, which is characterized by its limited vegetation and low temperatures. Nunavik's climate features long and cold winters as the seas to the west, east and north freeze over, eliminating maritime moderation. Since this moderation exists in summer when the surrounding sea thaws, even those temperatures are subdued. Inukjuak for example has summer highs averaging just 13 °C (55 °F) with January highs of −21 °C (−6 °F). This is exceptionally cold for a sea-level settlement more than 1/3 of the way from the North Pole to the Equator. Annual temperatures are up to 15 °C (27 °F) colder than marine areas of Northern Europe on similar parallels. Areas less affected by summertime marine moderation have somewhat warmer temperatures and unlike the west coast, feature marginal taiga due to summers being warmer than 10 °C (50 °F) in mean temperatures.

Nunavik is rich in mineral deposits where Raglan Mine, situated near Salluit, is one of the largest mines in the region. It is linked by all-weather roads to an airstrip at Kattiniq/Donaldson Airport and to the concentrate, storage and ship-loading facilities at Deception Bay. Production began at the mine in 1997. The current mine life is estimated at more than 30 years.

Because the site is situated in the subarctic permafrost region, it requires special construction and mining techniques to protect the fragile permafrost and to address other environmental issues. The average annual temperature is −10 °C (14 °F) with an average ambient temperature underground of −15 °C (5 °F). There are plans to increase production at a new mine in Raglan South.

The villages of Nunavik are populated predominately by Inuit. Much like their Nunavummiut neighbours to the North, the Nunavimmiut carve sculptures from soapstone and eat primarily caribou and fish. On clear nights, the aurora is often visible, and outdoors activities are abundant in this region.

Nunavik, along with the Quebec portion of the James Bay region (or Jamésie in French), is part of the administrative region of Nord-du-Québec. The James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement of 1978 led to greater political autonomy for most of the Nunavik region with the founding of the Kativik Regional Government. All inhabitants of the 14 northern villages, both Inuit and non-Inuit, vote in regional elections. The Kativik Regional Government is financed by the Government of Quebec (50%), the Government of Canada (25%), and local revenues (25%).The Agreement also led to the creation of the Kativik Regional Police Force, which has been providing police services in the Kativik region since 1996.[23] The KRPF was renamed as the Nunavik Police Service (NPS) in mid-2021.

The Makivik Corporation, headquartered in Kuujjuaq, represents the Inuit of Northern Quebec in their relations with the governments of Quebec and Canada. They are seeking greater political autonomy for the region and have recently negotiated an agreement defining their traditional rights to use the resources of the offshore islands of Nunavik, all of which are part of Nunavut.

The Cree village of Whapmagoostui, which forms an enclave on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay near the northern village of Kuujjuarapik, is part of the Cree Regional Authority, which itself has been incorporated into the Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee). The Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach, of the Côte-Nord region to the south of Nunavik, owns an exclusive hunting and trapping area in southern Nunavik and is represented in the Kativik Regional Government.

• Taqramiut Nipingat
• Tursujuq National Park
• List of proposed provinces and territories of Canada
• Nunatsiavut

• Kativik Regional Government website
• Nunavik Marine Region Planning Commission website
• Interactive map of information on Nunavik communities
• Makivik Corporation
• Northern Quebec at Curlie