What are the key geographic features of the Northwest Territories?
Answer
The largest of Canada's three territories before Nunavut split off in 1999, with the Mackenzie River, Great Bear and Great Slave Lakes, and diamond mines.
Explanation
The Northwest Territories (NWT) covers 1,346,106 square kilometres in northern mainland Canada and the western Arctic Archipelago. Population is about 45,000, with about half living in the territorial capital Yellowknife. The current NWT is the remainder of a much larger territory that was reduced in steps by the creation of Manitoba (1870), British Columbia (1871, transferring the western mountain region), Yukon (1898), Alberta and Saskatchewan (1905), and Nunavut (April 1, 1999). About half of NWT residents are Indigenous, with significant Dene, Inuvialuit, and Metis populations.
The territory contains Canada's longest river (the Mackenzie at 1,738 kilometres) and two of Canada's largest lakes: Great Slave Lake (the deepest lake in North America at 614 metres, fifth-largest in Canada at 28,568 square kilometres) and Great Bear Lake (the largest lake entirely within Canada at 31,328 square kilometres, eighth-largest in the world). The Canadian Shield dominates the eastern NWT (with extensive boreal forest, subarctic taiga, and exposed Precambrian rock), while the Mackenzie River valley and the Mackenzie Mountains run through the western NWT.
Northern NWT extends across the Arctic Circle into the western Arctic Archipelago, including Banks Island and the western portion of Victoria Island (the rest is in Nunavut). The Beaufort Sea coast and the Mackenzie Delta (about 12,000 square kilometres, one of the largest deltas in the world) host Inuvialuit communities at Tuktoyaktuk, Aklavik, Inuvik, and Paulatuk. The 138-kilometre Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway (opened November 15, 2017) is Canada's only public road that reaches the Arctic Ocean.
The NWT has been the centre of Canadian diamond mining since 1998. The Ekati mine (1998 to present), the Diavik mine (2003 to 2025), and the Gahcho Kue mine (2016 to present) together produced about $20 billion in diamonds in the past 25 years. Major Indigenous land-claim agreements include the Inuvialuit Final Agreement (1984, the first comprehensive claim in Canada), the Gwich'in Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement (1992), the Sahtu Dene and Metis Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement (1993), the Tlicho Land Claims and Self-Government Agreement (2003), and the Salt River First Nation treaty land entitlement (2002). Devolution of provincial-style powers from federal to territorial government took effect on April 1, 2014.
Why this matters for your test
The Northwest Territories is the gateway to Canada's mainland north and the home of the country's diamond mining industry. Recognising the 1999 creation of Nunavut from the eastern NWT and the Inuvialuit Final Agreement of 1984 gives candidates two specific anchors.
Source: Government of the Northwest Territories; Statistics Canada
