History of the Northwest Territories of Canada

The Northwest Territories is a territory of Canada; it is located in northern Canada, it is east of Yukon, west and south of Nunavut, and north of British Columbia. The date the Northwest Territories entered confederation is July 15, 1870. Some geographical features are the vast Great Bear, the Great Slave Lakes, and the Mackenzie River, the canyons of the Nahanni River, a national park, and UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Northwest Territories extends over a vast land area that consists of tundra, forest, and prairie. While large in geographic size, the territory is home to few people: In 2006 its population was 42,526. Its large geographic size and small population combine to make the territory one of the most sparsely populated areas in the world. A cold climate and permafrost (permanently frozen ground) prevent agricultural activities and make other economic activities very expensive. Today, the Northwest Territories remains the largest political subdivision in Canada, with 34.1 percent of the total area of the country; it is divided into three districts: Keewatin, Mackenzie and Franklin. The principal cities in the Northwest Territories are Yellowknife, the capital, Hay River, and Fort Smith, all of which are located around Great Slave Lake. The population is almost evenly split between nonindigenous Canadians and indigenous Canadians. Indians, also called the Dene, represent half a dozen tribes, each with a distinct language based on the Athapaskan root language. The MÐ"©tis are a mixed-blood people who were originally offspring of unions between Indian women and French or British fur trappers. The Inuit are an indigenous people who inhabit the Arctic coastal regions.

As a territory, Northwest Territories has fewer rights than provinces do; the government of Northwest Territories does not have political parties, except for the time between 1898 and 1905. It is the only jurisdiction in Canada that does not operate on a political party structure, and is the only Legislative Assembly that follows a system of consensus government. This means that each member is free to vote as he wishes on any issue and approval of each issue requires agreement by a majority of members. This type of government consists of one member elected from each of the nineteen constituencies. After these elections, the new parliament elects a premier and speaker by secret ballot. Then seven MLAs are chosen as cabinet members, with the remainder forming the opposition. The Commissioner is the head of state for the territories who is appointed by the federal government. The commissioner has become a symbolic position since 1967 because of the devolution of more and more powers to the elected assembly.

The economy of the Northwest Territories is based on nonrenewable resources. The territory has vast geological resources such as diamonds, gold, and oil that are exported to Southern Canada, and because of these natural resources Northwest Territories has the highest per capita GDP of all provinces and territories in Canada. Tourism is also growing and becoming a big service industry. This narrowly based economy is subject to cyclical swings in global demand, making it vulnerable to a boom-and-bust type of economic instability. The territorial economy is small, contributing less than 1 percent to the Canadian gross domestic product (GDP) in 1996. The small size of the economy and the high cost of delivering services to the residents of the Northwest Territories means that the federal government must provide around 90 percent of the territorial government's budget. The GDP total was 4.083 billion and per capita ranked 1st at $94,953. The country is ranked 3rd as 1,346,106 km2 in land and 1,183,085 km2 in water. Northern Canada, including the Northwest Territories, is an expensive place to live, since building materials and foodstuffs are imported from the south, the higher prices are primarily due to transportation costs.

The Northwest Territories includes the languages Chipewyan, Cree, Dogrib, English, French, Gwich'in, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, Inuinnaqtun, North Slavey and South Slavey. Northwest Territory residents have the right to use any of these languages when receiving services from the government, in court, and in debates and proceedings of the legislative. These days the Northwest Territories