# This is Iqaluit !



## ♣628.finst (Jul 29, 2005)

This is Iqaluit! From Far Northeastern Canada!










What's your impression of the above photo? Does it looks wealthy? poor? modern? ugly? beautiful?


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## juanico (Sep 30, 2005)

It looks like a poor and ugly scar in a beautiful natural landscape.


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## Nouvellecosse (Jun 4, 2005)

It looks REALLY small. Hard to beleive this is the capital of Nunavut - or anywhere! And it doesn't look like a residential area, it looks like a small industrial/business park. 

Also, things look too spread out. You'd think that in a small village like that things would be tightly packed like in a historic European village. Especially so far North where you have to worry about heating and saving energy.


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## 3rdbaseYankees (Jan 11, 2005)

Where are all the trees? I see no street signs and no buildings seem to be labled. I also thought that things would be closer together and not so spread out. If it gets so cold in the winter, why not have all the buildings close together and connected by enclosed walkways or tunnels? 
I am sorry but the town looks really depressing.


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## xzmattzx (Dec 24, 2004)

looks fine to me. i understand that iqaluit is doing well with the cards it's been dealt. it would be dumb to space the buildings closer together because of all the snow. it has to go somewhere, and it is probably pushed to the side of the road like in every other town. moreover, what's the point of cramming all the buildings closer together? it's not like the town is taking up valuable farmland. there are millions of square miles in nunavut that are desolate and uninhabited. so what's the big deal if an extra 10 acres is used? and tunnels is not feasable to me. these people don't have massive amounts of money to spend on underground complexes. that is also the reason why the buildings don't look so great; it's not like this place is a hub of high-paying jobs like lawyers, executives, surgeons, etc.

sorry if i sound rude, but i am just trying to explain that the deck is stacked aginst any city located that far north. things that we take for granted, like thousands of job opportunities or a large selection of homes to live in, ar things that they do not have.


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## RepoMan (Apr 20, 2005)

It's functional but not a pretty sight unless you just walked in from the tundra. I imagine the buildings are spread out so as not to melt the permafrost and cause subsidence.

There are no trees because this city is hundreds of miles above the tree line. They simply won't grow this far north.


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## Finance Guy (Jan 21, 2005)

Yep... seems like 3rdbaseYankees had no idea how horrendous the location of Iqualuit is. A bad Montreal winter (and damn they can get bad) seems like vision from heaven compared to nunavut winter (and i'd guess their summer would be quite a disapointment for many peeps). It's pretty much the opposit of southern Florida!


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## Victoria (Feb 23, 2005)

It's what I expected, not great but not that bad either.


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## You are to blame (Oct 14, 2004)

3rdbaseYankees said:


> Where are all the trees? I see no street signs and no buildings seem to be labled. I also thought that things would be closer together and not so spread out. If it gets so cold in the winter, why not have all the buildings close together and connected by enclosed walkways or tunnels?
> I am sorry but the town looks really depressing.


ever heard of the treeline ( the furthest point north where trees can grow). It's hundreds of kilometers south of Iqualit.

By the way Iqualit is one of the fastest growing communities in canada, with alot of construction going one, including hospitals, apartments, houses, alot of public institutions, expansion of it's port, etc....

Iqualit also looks better int he winter



























































































some of the new buildings of the building boom













































































































bus stop



























artic flora





































































aerial view


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## You are to blame (Oct 14, 2004)

here is a map of the treeline mentioned aboved. The white part shows tundra, Tree's can't grow there because a meter below the suface the groud remains permenantly frozen. it's makes builing road deficult and also buildings can't have foundations


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## Renkinjutsushi (Dec 4, 2004)

I expected it to look like this also, what is the population of Inuits in the city?


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## You are to blame (Oct 14, 2004)

7 thousand and growing fast, like 100% every 5 years


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## elliot (Dec 19, 2003)

Fearless post. Must visit the true north


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## Renkinjutsushi (Dec 4, 2004)

You are to blame said:


> 7 thousand and growing fast, like 100% every 5 years


Wow, in 5 years they would have exceeded the current population of Nunavut.


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## wazabi (Jul 20, 2004)

Yep, from the street level and in winter Iqaluit looks quite charming. I like that endless horizon.
I have never seen this alphabet you can see on the signs, think that's Eskimo language, isn't it? what is it called?
Iqaluit would make a great ski resort, but i guess it's too far from bigger agglomeration (and high mountains?). What's the reason for the fast growth? Newly found oil fields?


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## TO_Joe (Jul 22, 2005)

Wild! Smaller and more outpost than I expected. Not unlike many other remote towns in Northern Ontario or Quebec that I've been to but more remote. I admire the hardiness of the people who live there -- I don't think I can stay there for an extended period of time. But Nunavut should boom -- and it is native rule.


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## Kev the burninator (Sep 24, 2004)

Wow, Big White Mountain Ski Resort in my town is bigger... , still, it's an amazing town... it would be cool to shoot a movie there


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## ♣628.finst (Jul 29, 2005)

wazabi said:


> Yep, from the street level and in winter Iqaluit looks quite charming. I like that endless horizon.
> I have never seen this alphabet you can see on the signs, think that's Eskimo language, isn't it? what is it called?
> Iqaluit would make a great ski resort, but i guess it's too far from bigger agglomeration (and high mountains?). What's the reason for the fast growth? Newly found oil fields?


Oil fields are found in the Northwest, and Iqaluit will become a business hub for supporting the industry. Anyway, Iqaluit is still the poorest provincial capital in Canada, but it's growing very fast.


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## bunt_q (Jul 29, 2003)

I could *so* live there... awesome. Look like the high-tundra areas I go ice fishing here in Colorado


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## Jayayess1190 (Feb 6, 2005)

A bus



www.the-bus-stops-here.org/canada.html

*Iqaluit bus stops running Jan. 10

City will negotiate compensation with contractor *

*The City of Iqaluit's public bus service will go off the road Jan. 10, following a city council decision to drop the service made during recent budget discussions.

That means the only task now facing city staff is to work out a compensation deal with the contractor, R.L. Hanson Construction Ltd. The city and the Hanson firm are only about half-way through the second year of a five-year contract that started in July, 2003.

No can say exactly how much compensation the city will end up paying.

"We have no idea how this is going to play out," said Ian Fremantle, the city of Iqaluit's CAO.

Under the terms of their contract with the Hanson firm, the city has already given the contractor 30 days notice of its intention to back out of the agreement.

The city spent about $155,000 on its bus service last year, with most of that money going to the contractor. In exchange, the Hanson firm supplied a bus and driver, and kept any money raised by selling fares.

But at $2 a ride, fare revenue wouldn't have brought in much cash.

A recent study done by Dillon Consulting shows that ridership has dropped from a high of about 300 riders a week to only 200 - about 28 riders a day.

The city estimates this cost them a whopping $16.99 per user.

"You could supply every rider with a taxi voucher and still be $100,000 to the good at the end of the year," Fremantle said.

The city has designed its 2005 operating budget to produce a cash surplus of about $665,000, which will be automatically diverted to cover projected deficits in its five-year capital plan.

http://www.nunatsiaq.com/archives/41217/news/nunavut/41217_10.html*

*About Iqaluit: Demographics*

Statistics Canada figures show Nunavut's population at the time of its formation in 1999 was approximately 27,000. Unlike Yukon and NWT, a large proportion of the population does not reside in a single community (Table 1). The City of Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, is the largest community with a population of 6,000. Rankin Inlet is the second largest community with a population of approximately 2,200. Eight other communities have populations over 1,000 people including Cambridge Bay. Approximately half of the population resides in the Baffin region, with roughly 30 per cent residing in the Keewatin or Kivalliq region and 20 per cent residing in the Kitikmeot region.

Inuit represent approximately 85 per cent of the population, but for communities other than Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay the percentage of Inuit is closer to 95 per cent. As such, the percentage of aboriginal peoples is higher in Nunavut than in Yukon (21 per cent), NWT (48 per cent) and Greenland (80 per cent). According to the 1996 Census, Inuktitut is the dominant language in Nunavut with 60 per cent speaking it at home compared with 35 per cent speaking English.

There are some important aspects about Nunavut's population that distinguish it from the population of other jurisdictions in Canada, and which will have implications for Nunavut's economic development. The first aspect pertains to the Territory's rapid growth in population over the past several decades. For example, Nunavut experienced an increase in population by 32 per cent between 1986 and 1996. Most of this growth is due to natural increase as high birth rates were accompanied with increased life expectancy rates due in part to improvements in health related services 35. Nunavut's population growth rate (16.4 per cent) was more than three times the national average (5.7 per cent) between 1991 and 1996. Nunavut's population is expected to reach over 32,000 by 2006 and over 43,000 by 2020 according to Nunavummit Kiglisiniartiit (Nunavut Bureau of Statistics). By 2010 it is expected that there will be more people residing in Nunavut than in Yukon. However, it should be noted that Nunavut's population growth rate growth has been slowing, as has its fertility rate due to Inuit women having fewer children.

The high population growth rate over the past several years has resulted in Nunavut having the youngest population in Canada (Table 2). Approximately 60 per cent of the population are under 25 years of age-92 per cent of whom are Inuit-and 41 per cent of the population are under 16 years. So, unlike most of Canada (Chart 1), Nunavut has a very large segment of the population that is quite young and that will likely dominate public policy in Nunavut for years to come (e.g., the need for increased demand for educational related services, youth employment opportunities) 36. The non-Inuit population in Nunavut is distributed similar to the overall Canadian distribution with the majority being between the ages of 25 and 60 years.

35 Jack Hicks and Graham White, "Nunavut: Inuit Self-Determination Through a Land Claim and Public Government?" Nunavut: Inuit Regain Control of Their Lands and Their Lives ed. J Dahl, J. Hicks and P. Jull (Copenhagen, Denmark: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, 2000), pg. 34-35.

36 Government of Northwest Territories, Towards Excellence: A Report on Education in the NWT 1996-97.


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## Menino de Sampa (Sep 21, 2003)

Interesting. Totally unknown by me. kay:


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## Metroland (Apr 27, 2005)

wazabi said:


> Yep, from the street level and in winter Iqaluit looks quite charming. I like that endless horizon.
> I have never seen this alphabet you can see on the signs, think that's Eskimo language, isn't it? what is it called?
> Iqaluit would make a great ski resort, but i guess it's too far from bigger agglomeration (and high mountains?). What's the reason for the fast growth? Newly found oil fields?




The language you see on the signs is Inuktituk of the Inuit peoples of the Canadian Arctic. BTW referring to an Inuk person as an Eskimo is derogatory and very offensive and it is the name of the Alaskan indigenous peoples. I'm not sure if the snow is deep enough there to harbour a ski resort, and also trees cannot grow in the region because of permafrost.


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## Alfa (Feb 26, 2005)

Metroland said:


> BTW referring to an Inuk person as an Eskimo is derogatory and very offensive


No it isn't. In Dutch laguage Eskimo is just the word for Inuit. If the eskimo's finding that offending well than thats their problem. Is it also offending if I call a inhabitant of France frenchman intead of 'une française'?


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## Metroland (Apr 27, 2005)

Alfa said:


> No it isn't. In Dutch laguage Eskimo is just the word for Inuit. If the eskimo's finding that offending well than thats their problem. Is it also offending if I call a inhabitant of France frenchman intead of 'une française'?



Then I suggest you take your ass to the Canadian Arctic and say "Hello Eskimo" and then wait for a response. Just because Eskimo means Inuit in Dutch does not make it a universal term. I might as well call you Windmill Sucker. :bash:


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## MuddyZehbra32 (Jan 23, 2005)

kind of odd how there is nothing really alive in the town except for a few patches of grass here and there, most of the time it looks like the snow and plows jsut kill everything.....and i see a lot of trash in everyones ur......."yard"?


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## thryve (Mar 5, 2005)

Fascinating thread!!!


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## You are to blame (Oct 14, 2004)

Alfa said:


> No it isn't. In Dutch laguage Eskimo is just the word for Inuit. If the eskimo's finding that offending well than thats their problem. Is it also offending if I call a inhabitant of France frenchman intead of 'une française'?


Calling an Inuit an Eskimo is a great insult and you would get your ass kicked if you tried it. The name was given to the Inuit by ignorant southern tribes and is an insult to them.


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## You are to blame (Oct 14, 2004)

MuddyZehbra32 said:


> kind of odd how there is nothing really alive in the town except for a few patches of grass here and there, most of the time it looks like the snow and plows jsut kill everything.....and i see a lot of trash in everyones ur......."yard"?


Don't tell me you are expecting trees. It's called tundra people, and plants with deep roots can't grow because of the perma-forst, hence the treeline.


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## Chibcha2k (Oct 19, 2002)

It looks ugly, but fascinating...but it kind of freaks me...it reminds me of "the thing" movie...i hate polar places...


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