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Accessed 14 November In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published February 07, ; Last Edited December 20, The Canadian Encyclopedia , s. Thank you for your submission Our team will be reviewing your submission and get back to you with any further questions.
Thanks for contributing to The Canadian Encyclopedia. Article by David J. The North-West Territories was the first Canadian territory. It was Established on 15 July As a territory, the region became part of Canada.
But it lacked the population , economic and infrastructure resources to attain provincial status. It thus fell under the jurisdiction of the federal government. It covered a vast area, stretching west from a disputed boundary with Labrador , across the northern portions of present-day Quebec and Ontario , through the Prairies to British Columbia , and north from the 49th parallel to the Arctic Ocean.
The territory was subject to numerous boundary changes before At that time, the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta were carved out of the southwest portion of the region.
In , the remaining territory was renamed the Northwest Territories. But it lacked the population, economic and infrastructure resources to attain provincial status. It covered a vast area, stretching west from a disputed boundary with Labrador, across the northern portions of present-day Quebec and Ontario, through the Prairies to British Columbia, and north from the 49th parallel to the Arctic Ocean.
Further Reading J. Lower, Western Canada Gerald Friesen, Prairie Road David J. Similarly, in , offshore exploration resumed following the lifting of a year right issuance moratorium, put in place pending the resolution of land claims. Land claims remain an important issue in the face of ongoing resource development. The greatest single natural resource of the region for Indigenous peoples has been the migratory barren land caribou , which swarmed in enormous herds to summer in this region.
In the 20th century, caribou numbers fluctuated dramatically because of changes in hunting pressure and wolf abundance. Declines had serious repercussions for local residents here, resulting in the movement of the Caribou Inuit of the Ennadai Lake area to communities on the west coast of Hudson Bay in Nunavut. By , caribou numbers were again large and most herds were increasing. Marine animals e. Polar bear skins and fox pelts still provide some income for the Inuit.
Many of the people living in smaller communities continue to earn at least part of their living by hunting, trapping and fishing. In , 39 per cent of people over the age of 15 hunted or fished in the NWT, including 45 per cent of the Indigenous population. Six per cent participated in trapping. Since the territorial government assists those wishing to make a living off the land through various harvest assistance programs.
The commercial fishery operates primarily out of Great Slave Lake. Whitefish is the most important catch, though pickerel and lake trout are also harvested. Tourism provides increasing economic benefits to the NWT, with visitors arriving by road via the Mackenzie Highway system and the Dempster Highway in the west.
Fly-in sport fishing lodges and wilderness camps are served out of Yellowknife and Fort Smith among others. Inuit prints and sculpture have established an international reputation and are a major source of employment.
In , about nine per cent of the population over the age of 15 of the NWT produced arts and crafts, including large percentages of the population of the small Indigenous communities of Kakisa and Trout River about 40 per cent and 48 per cent, respectively.
Transportation in the NWT must cope with enormous distances, severe climatic conditions and the small, scattered population. It is remarkable that the NWT is so well-served, and the high costs can be appreciated. Commercial water transportation still operates during the summer on the Mackenzie. A modern diesel tug and barge fleet is based at Hay River, with a secondary base at the mouth of the Mackenzie at Tuktoyaktuk , the only reliably sheltered harbour on the shallow western coast.
The coastal communities from Tuktoyaktuk eastwards as far as the Boothia Peninsula are served by tug and dual-purpose barge, though often the short ice-free season may restrict such service to a single call. Since the Second World War a limited road network has been extended northwards into the Mackenzie Valley.
Highways are mainly all-weather gravel roads and include several important river ferry links. This extension is the only road access to Wood Buffalo National Park.
Inuvik and other Mackenzie Delta communities are now linked to Dawson, YT, by the Dempster Highway , making it almost possible to reach the shores of the Arctic Ocean by road.
The Deh Cho Bridge, across the Mackenzie River near Fort Providence, opened on 30 November , and is designed to lower the reliance of the surrounding areas, especially the North Slave Region, on ferries. The bridge will also hopefully allow for year-round commercial activities as opposed to the strictly seasonal trends of previous years. Winter roads exist seasonally over frozen lakes to many isolated communities and mines. Ice crossings have to be reconstructed annually and are only operational for about three to four months per year.
The railway also led to Hay River's development as the major river transportation centre because of its transhipment advantages, and displaced the earlier all-water Slave River route via Fort McMurray, AB. Aircraft often are the only practical method of transportation in the NWT, particularly in the Arctic. Airfields serve most NWT communities with populations over Regularly scheduled airline service is provided from southern Canadian cities into the larger communities as far north as Resolute.
From , when the areas which became Alberta and Saskatchewan were granted provincial status and subsequently ceded from the NWT, until after the Second World War, the government of the NWT was carried on by an appointed commissioner and council, composed entirely of senior civil servants based in Ottawa. Beginning in , elected members were gradually added to the previously all-appointed council until it became a fully elected body in In the time leading up to this change, the commissioner was a deputy minister in the federal department in charge of the administration of the Yukon Territory and the NWT in addition to other major responsibilities.
In , the federal government created federal electoral constituencies in parts of the Northwest Territories. In the seat of territorial government was moved to Yellowknife and the commissioner relocated there with the nucleus of what has become a territorial public service. Today, the federal Northwest Territories Act contains a written constitution and defines the powers of the territorial government.
There are no political parties in the territory. The territorial assembly consists of 19 members, elected by people in the constituencies. Following an election, members choose from amongst themselves one person to serve as premier and another as speaker.
The commissioner role is akin to that of a provincial lieutenant governor. While the Legislative Assembly of the NWT acts, for the most part, as a provincial legislature would, it does not have the same level of control. Only federal government, for example, can amend the NWT Act. The NWT also relies heavily on federal transfers. For comparison, during the same year, federal transfers accounted for 34 per cent of PEI 's revenue, making it the province relying the most on the federal government, but still far less dependent than the territories.
The discussion around separating what is now Nunavut from the NWT began as early as the s, and stemmed from a desire on the part of the people of Nunavut — who are primarily Inuit — to have a territory and a government of their own.
Finally, in , the territorial government held a plebiscite and the majority voted in favour of dividing the NWT. Land claim and self-government agreements have always been major issues for the territorial government. The territorial judiciary comprises a Court of Appeal consisting of all the justices of appeal from Alberta, one from Saskatchewan and the four NWT Supreme Court justices.
The Territorial Court has four resident judges three in Yellowknife, one in Hay River and one in Inuvik and 52justices of the peace living in communities throughout the territory. Judges and justices of the peace are appointed by the commissioner on the advice of the Judicial Appointments Advisory Committee of the NWT.
There are deputy judges of the Supreme Court who serve where and when needed. Court sessions are held in Yellowknife and on regular court circuits throughout the territories. Sibbeston, Liberal, appointed by Jean Chretien in For administrative purposes the NWT is divided into five regions.
Decentralization and devolution recently have increased the importance of these areas. In fact, an early demand for decentralization of government and the recognizing of local Indigenous identities in the s would pave the way for the eventual creation of Nunavut in Despite the success of some of these demands, the development of municipal government to provide local decision-making has been hampered by the small size of many of these communities, their remoteness and their limited local economic resources.
In addition, there are four towns, four community governments, three charter communities and 11 hamlets. Until Northern Health Services was established by the federal government in , health services in the territory were provided principally by church agencies.
The territorial government assumed full control of health services in Modern hospitals are located in Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Smith and Inuvik, with lesser facilities, including some 50 nursing stations, scattered over the territory.
Dental care is available in Yellowknife, Hay River, Inuvik and Fort Smith, and from government-employed full-time dentists and dental therapists located throughout the NWT. Until the end of the Second World War, education was provided mainly by church missions, with students usually housed in nearby residences in a few larger centres. Beginning in , a massive education development program was initiated by the federal government and was transferred to the territorial government in While the policy of educating all children, no matter how remote their location, was implemented with good intentions, it resulted in many children being taken from their traditional land and placed in large, centralized schools.
For many years no effort was made to teach students either their languages or customs as it was assumed that integration into the wider Canadian society would create a more independent populace. The establishment of divisional boards of education increased local control of education in the NWT.
The Baffin region was the first to form a divisional board in , and by divisional boards of education were established in all regions except Yellowknife. One member of each locally-elected community education council is selected to serve on the region's divisional board. Yellowknife is represented by a public and a Catholic board of education which were founded in and respectively.
Members of these boards are elected in municipal elections. The boards and divisional boards have authority for the delivery of education from kindergarten to grade Cincinnati, OH: C.
Hurt, R. Milligan, Fred J. Ohio's Founding Fathers. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, Inc. Onuf, Peter S. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, Smith, Dwight L.
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