It’s Cold, But It’s Ours

ABOUT 15,000 VOTERS IN CANADA’S SPARSELY SETtled Northwest Territories made it to the polls last week and narrowly approved a plan to split the vast region in two. Once a chain of legal steps is completed, the new 772,000-sq.-mi. territory, to be called Nunavut, will become a national home for the Eskimo — or Inuit — of the country’s eastern Arctic. It will encompass a huge area of mainland and islands stretching from Manitoba almost to the North Pole that is thought to be rich in oil and minerals.

Though the plebiscite was not formally binding on the Canadian government, Ottawa is going ahead with its plans to set up a local administration and hand over political control of the area by 1999. In November the residents, 85% of whom are Inuit, will be asked to vote again on a complicated land settlement. The deal will offer the Inuit outright ownership of 135,000 sq. mi. and a cash payment of $1 billion over 14 years. If it is accepted, a crash program will begin training the Inuit to take over administration of the Nunavut territorial government.

Even then Nunavut (“our land”) will not come into existence until the whole package is submitted to Parliament for ratification.