Northwest Territories

I

Introduction

Northwest Territories, administrative region of north-western Canada. It is bounded on the north by the Beaufort Sea (an arm of the Arctic Ocean); on the east by Nunavut; on the south by the provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia; and on the west by Yukon Territory. The Northwest Territories extend northward to within 800 km (500 mi) of the North Pole.

The Northwest Territories was acquired by Canada and entered the confederation on July 15, 1870; its borders were drawn up in 1912. On April 1, 1999, the boundaries of the Northwest Territories were changed by the creation of Canada's third and newest territory, Nunavut. A self-governing Inuit homeland, Nunavut was formerly the central and eastern region of the Northwest Territories.

II

Land and Resources

The Northwest Territories has an area, as of April 1999, of 1,299,070 sq km (501,441 sq mi). Previously the largest political subdivision in Canada, Northwest Territories now ranks third after Nunavut and Quebec. Most of the territory lies on the Canadian mainland, partly within the Arctic Circle, but it includes a number of islands in the north. Four of these (Victoria Island, Melville Island, Mackenzie King Island, and Borden Island) are shared with Nunavut. The Northwest Territories is sparsely settled and most land is owned by the federal government.

A

Physical Geography

The Northwest Territories encompasses a great variety of surface features. The hilly and rocky Canadian Shield runs south-eastward from Great Bear Lake. It is bordered on the west by a northern extension of the low-lying Interior Plains of North America. Farther west this region gives way to the Western Mountain System, a rugged area with peaks averaging about 1,524 m (5,000 ft) in elevation. Elevations in the territory range from sea level, along the thousands of miles of coastline bordered by the Arctic Ocean, to 2,762 m (9,062 ft) at Mount Sir James MacBrien, near the Yukon border. Ice-covered sea and arctic tundra create much of the frozen landscape of the Northwest Territories.

The Canadian Shield is dotted with countless lakes, remnants of the ice sheets that once covered the area. At the western edge of the shield region are the two largest lakes entirely within Canada, and two of the largest lakes of North America: Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake. Both these lakes are cold and deep, and frozen for at least eight months each year. These two lakes and most of the western mainland drain north to the Arctic Ocean by the great Mackenzie River. By far the region's most important river, the Mackenzie flows north-west and empties through an extensive delta into Mackenzie Bay on the Beaufort Sea.

B

Climate

The climate ranges from subarctic to arctic. Long and very cold winters occur in all places; the mean January temperature is below -28.9° C (-20° F), and -51.1° C (-60° F) is often recorded. Summers in the Arctic Islands and along the continental coast are relatively cool (July average, 4.4° C/40° F) in contrast to the warm temperatures of the Mackenzie Valley and much of the mainland (July average, 15.6° C/60° F). The low temperatures and the ice-sealed waters contribute to the low annual precipitation, which averages 305 mm (12 in) on the mainland. In the territory's Arctic Islands, annual precipitation is only 51 mm (2 in).