What is the Inuvialuit Settlement Region?

The Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR) is the western Arctic Inuit homeland in Canada's Northwest Territories, covering about 906,000 square kilometres of land and offshore. The ISR was established by the Inuvialuit Final Agreement (IFA) of June 5, 1984 (effective July 25, 1984), the first comprehensive Indigenous land claim agreement in Canada and a model for the major land claims that followed. The IFA covers the Inuvialuit (Western Arctic Inuit), about 5,800 of whom live in six communities.

The ISR includes the Mackenzie Delta and the Beaufort Sea coast from the Yukon-NWT border east to the boundary with Nunavut, the Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula, and the western Arctic Archipelago islands of Banks, Sachs Harbour, and parts of Victoria Island. The six Inuvialuit communities are Inuvik (population about 3,500, the regional centre), Tuktoyaktuk (at the mouth of the Mackenzie Delta on the Beaufort Sea), Aklavik (in the lower Mackenzie Delta), Sachs Harbour (on Banks Island), Paulatuk (on the Beaufort Sea coast), and Ulukhaktok (formerly Holman, on Victoria Island).

The IFA transferred 91,000 square kilometres of Inuvialuit Owned Lands (including subsurface rights to 13,000 square kilometres) to Inuvialuit ownership, provided $45 million in 1984 dollars in capital, established the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation as the principal Inuvialuit institution, and created co-management boards for wildlife (the Wildlife Management Advisory Council), fisheries (the Fisheries Joint Management Committee), environmental impact screening (the Environmental Impact Screening Committee), and environmental impact review (the Environmental Impact Review Board). The Inuvialuit Game Council represents Inuvialuit hunters in co-management.

The ISR is one of the most ecologically significant Arctic regions. The Mackenzie Delta is one of the largest deltas in the world (about 12,000 square kilometres) and is critical habitat for migratory waterfowl, beluga whale, and polar bear. The Tuktut Nogait National Park (designated 1996, 16,340 square kilometres) protects the calving grounds of the Bluenose-West caribou herd. Aulavik National Park (designated 1992 on Banks Island) protects 12,274 square kilometres including Thomsen River, the world's most northerly canoeable river, and supports the largest population of muskoxen in the world (about 60,000 on Banks Island alone). Ivvavik National Park (designated 1984 in northern Yukon, the first Canadian national park created as a result of an Indigenous land claim agreement) is part of the cross-border calving grounds of the Porcupine caribou herd. The Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway, opened November 15, 2017, is Canada's only public road that reaches the Arctic Ocean.