Arrival in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada
Weather: Sunny and in the -30s … celsius that is….
Arrived safe and sound in Inuvik, NWT this afternoon. Located 200km above the Arctic circle, the community was established as an administrative centre in Canada’s western Arctic in the 1950s.
Today, the community is the last stop on Canada’s famous Dempster Highway, the only highway in the country to cross the Arctic Circle.
The population today is about 3,500. About one third of the people are Gwich’in (one of Canada’s First Nations), one third Inuvialuit (Inuit from Canada’s western Arctic) with the last third made up of people from the south or recent immigrants to Canada.
The community is known for its annual petroleum show and for having been featured in the History series Ice Road Truckers.
I haven’t been here long but it feels like a mini-city to me, there’s a huge recreation centre, three supermarkets, book and souvenir stores, churches, a mosque… the list goes on and on. Doesn’t feel like a remote Arctic community at all… until you go into the grocery store and see the prices. I just paid $5 for some celery. Yikes.
Write to Eilis Quinn at eilis.quinn(at)cbc.ca