Interesting facts about Nunavut

Nuna means land and Vut means our, together that means out land.  The Inuit people of Nunavut have a long history.  Last night we had guest speakers come into the Katimavik house and speak to us about Nunavut.  We got a lecture on how Inuit people were sustainable as a culture by themselves to being destroyed by assimilation of culture and then by the 1970 to 1999 the leaders of the pack fought to create Nunavut, formerly known as the North Western Territories.  In 1999 they were finally established and within a span of a generation they had created what is known as our land. One of the guest speakers who spoke, her mother was a part of the movement in the 1970’s and she was invited to meet Pope John Paul II, who blessed the flag of Nunavut.  He said that what they did, to create a land and unite a group of people, they did it without shedding an ounce of blood.  He said that they were an inspiration for people in the Middle East and Africa and other parts of the world to unite.  Nunavut and the Inuit people are a source of hope and strength.  

Here in Nunavut there are not many street signs and there are absolutely no traffic signs only stop signs.

There are no trees here because we are above the tree line. All we have are rocks and mountains or rock.

The time zone is the exact same as Toronto.

There are no sidewalks, just areas that have been plowed of to the side.

Icicles here can kill people. That’s why there are some buildings here that have oddly shaped roofs to prevent ice from forming.

There are no forms of public transportation the way most people get around here during the winter time is snow mobiles, cars, walking and taxis.  The way taxis work here is that they do not keep fares they just charge $6 per person anywhere you go. That is also why people share taxis here. For example if there are 4 people in the car they pay $6 each even if they are going to the same place.  Whereas in Toronto they charge a fare and if you travel somewhere that is $15 you can split it between the people in the car.  There are ups and downs with this method; it works in Nunavut because it is a small city with a population of 3500 people.  And to walk across town it takes 30 minutes.  If this same method was in Toronto or Waterloo it would not be profitable.

The crime that occurs here are mainly due to 3 things.  The first is because of bootlegging.  There are no LCBOs or NSLCs or beer stores here, instead the way people get drunk here is by going to the local bars and pubs.  So people go to Yellowknife or to other territories and buy alcohol and travel back to Nunavut and sell it out of their homes for 10x more then what they bought it for. Bootlegging alcohol is illegal and the RCMP try to stop it however there is not much checking done at the airports.  In airports they check your carryon luggage but not your checked luggage and once you are in Canada and are travelling within Canada there is virtually no checking done.  So in reality once you entre Canada you’re safe and can distribute contrabands within the country and from one territory/province to another.

The second is domestic violence. 

The third is….I’ll find out.

The difference between a territory and a province is that any proceeds, from mining for example, go to the government of Canada and in a province the proceeds go directly to the provincial government.  Nunavut is working its way up to become a province.

PS I'll be updating this one throughout the time that I am here!