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74-515: The program was created between 1994 and 1998, and there are currently more than 4,200 Junior Canadian Rangers in 135 JCR Patrols in remote and isolated communities across Canada, many of which are in the territory of Nunavut , and with Ontario having almost 1,000 Junior Rangers across 20 First Nations in 2017. Only the provinces of Prince Edward Island , New Brunswick , and Nova Scotia do not have JCRs. Junior Canadian Rangers are easily recognized by their green sweatshirts and ball caps. Training

148-708: A holding company that was, until April 1, 2014, jointly owned by the Inuvialuit of the Northwest Territories and the Inuit of Nunavut. In the second half of 2018 travellers visited Nunavut 134,000 times and spent $ 436 million. Two-thirds of those visits were by Nunavummiut (residents of Nunavut) travelling within the territory. The remaining came from outside other provinces or territories in Canada, or from abroad and spent $ 219 million. Travellers from Ontario make up

222-684: A "collection assembles the first animated films to be made by Inuit artists at the NFB. Featured is work by Solomonie Pootoogook, Timmun Alariaq, Mathew Joanasie, and Itee Pootoogook Pilaloosie—all participants in the Kinngait (formerly Cape Dorset) Film Animation Workshop on Baffin Island." In November 2006, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation announced

296-613: A building uphill from the DOT's JAWS station to house "High Arctic Long Range Communications Research", or signals intelligence operations. In 1957, Alert Wireless Station was conceived as an intercept facility to be jointly staffed by personnel from the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) and the RCAF. Five additional buildings were constructed: a mess, three barracks/accommodations buildings, and a power house and vehicle maintenance building, in addition to

370-470: A century since the province of Newfoundland (now Newfoundland and Labrador) was admitted in 1949. Nunavut comprises a major portion of Northern Canada and most of the Arctic Archipelago . Its vast territory makes it the fifth-largest country subdivision in the world , as well as North America's second-largest (after Greenland ). The capital Iqaluit (formerly Frobisher Bay), on Baffin Island in

444-459: A change-of-command. Since Alert has not been regularly accessible by icebreakers due to heavy ice conditions in the Lincoln Sea , resupply is provided by Royal Canadian Air Force transport aircraft which land at the adjacent Alert Airport . Difficult conditions at such a remote northern location have resulted in several incidents, two of which have involved fatalities: Since the beginning of

518-415: A civilian contractor. The contract was initially awarded to Canadian Base Operators (CBO), a subsidiary of Black & McDonald. In 2012, the contract was won by Nasittuq, a subsidiary of ATCO . In 1975, technicians employed by the weather station began collecting flask samples for a greenhouse gas monitoring program. In 1980, this grew to include the weekly collection of filter-based aerosol samples for

592-756: A conditional agreement seven months later. The land claims agreement was completed in September 1992 and ratified by nearly 85% of the voters in Nunavut in a referendum . On July 9, 1993, the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act and the Nunavut Act were passed by the Canadian Parliament . The transition to establish Nunavut Territory was completed on April 1, 1999. In 2020, Nunavut imposed strict travel regulations in order to prevent an outbreak of

666-411: A land mass almost as large as Mexico , Nunavut's land area of 1,836,993.78 km (709,267.26 sq mi) has a population density of 0.022/km (0.056/sq mi). Nunavut is also home to the world's northernmost continuously inhabited place, Alert . Eureka , a weather station on Ellesmere Island, has the lowest average annual temperature of any Canadian weather station. The region which

740-434: A number of smaller stations would be established by air. The immediate plans contemplated the establishment of weather stations only, but it was thought that a system of weather stations would also provide a nucleus of transportation, communications, and settlements, which would greatly aid programs of research in many other fields of science. It was recognized that ultimate action would depend on international cooperation, since

814-522: A party of federal and Northwest Territories (NWT) government officials arrived in Alert in an attempt to reach the North Pole . Alert had been the embarkation point for many North Pole expeditions that relied on weather information supplied by the weather station there. The 1971 expedition was led by Stu Hodgson , former Commissioner of the Northwest Territories , and included in his party were representatives of

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888-477: A population of 36,858 from the 2021 Census . In 2021, 30,865 people identified as Inuit (84.3% of the total population), 180 as First Nations (0.5%), 120 as Métis (0.3%), 230 with multiple or other Indigenous responses (0.6%), and 5,210 as non-Indigenous (14.2%). The population growth rate of Nunavut has been well above the Canadian average for several decades, mostly due to birth rates significantly higher than

962-406: A university co-op student). It is managed by Environment and Climate Change Canada . While Alert has no permanent residents, it has been continuously inhabited since April 1950. This population, while initially small, grew to upwards of 250 in the 1970s and 1980s, before being downsized in the 1990s when information gathering operations were relayed to CFS Leitrim near Ottawa for collation, reducing

1036-547: A visit to Alert as part of his campaign to promote Canadian sovereignty in the north . On November 8, 2009, the 2010 Winter Olympics torch relay arrived at Alert via airplane from Churchill , Manitoba , reaching its most northerly point on land. The next day it travelled to Iqaluit . On January 19 and 20, 2015, Governor General David Johnston flew into Alert on a C-17 Globemaster transport from CFB Trenton . He toured Alert, received an overview of its operations, met with civilian and military personnel and presided over

1110-569: Is an open pit gold mine with an estimated mine life 2010–2020 and employs 680 people. The second mine in production is the Mary River Iron Ore mine operated by Baffinland Iron Mines. It is located close to Pond Inlet on North Baffin Island. They produce a high grade direct ship iron ore. The most recent mine to open is Doris North or the Hope Bay Mine operated near Hope Bay Aerodrome by TMAC Resource Ltd. This new high grade gold mine

1184-664: Is based in Nunavut. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) serves Nunavut through a radio and television production centre in Iqaluit, and a bureau in Rankin Inlet. Iqaluit is served by private commercial radio stations CKIQ-FM and CKGC-FM , both owned by Northern Lights Entertainment Inc. (CKIQ-FM had a rebroadcaster in Rankin Inlet that was discontinued in 2009.) Nunavut is served by two regional weekly newspapers, Nunatsiaq News published by Nortext, and Nunavut News/North , published by Northern News Services , who also publish

1258-574: Is covered with sea ice for most of the year but the ice pack does move out in the summer, leaving open water. Evaporation rates are also very low, as average monthly temperatures are above freezing only in July and August. Other places on Ellesmere Island are the weather station at Eureka (480 km (300 mi)) and the Inuit community of Grise Fiord , 800 km (500 mi), to the southwest and south, respectively. Siorapaluk (540 km (340 mi) to

1332-470: Is delivered to JCRs by Canadian Rangers, civilian Adult Committee member, or community volunteers and is categorized under one of three "circles of learning". These are: Community Traditional skills, Canadian Ranger skills, and Life Skills. Most JCR Patrols conduct some training activities "on the land" to help prepare the youth to survive in the outdoors. The JCR Program offers a series of Enhanced Training Sessions (summer camps), which are designed to "expand

1406-797: Is now mainland Nunavut was first populated approximately 4,500 years ago by the Pre-Dorset , a diverse Paleo-Eskimo culture that migrated eastward from the Bering Strait region. The Pre-Dorset culture was succeeded by the Dorset culture about 2,800 years ago. Anthropologists and historians believe that the Dorset culture developed from the Pre-Dorset somehow. Helluland , which Norse explorers described visiting in their Sagas of Icelanders , has been associated with Nunavut's Baffin Island . Claims of contact between

1480-492: Is so low that door handles are covered in electrical tape to prevent static electricity . February is the coldest month of the year with a mean temperature of −33.2 °C (−27.8 °F). The yearly mean, −17.7 °C (0.1 °F), is the second-coldest in Nunavut after Eureka . Snowfall can occur during any month of the year, and the typical year sees no more than five days in a row without frost. Average highs rise above freezing only in mid-June and drop below freezing at

1554-474: Is the first in a series of potential mines in gold occurrences all along the Hope Bay greenstone belt . Nunavut's people rely primarily on diesel fuel to run generators and heat homes, with fossil fuel shipments from southern Canada by plane or boat because there are few to no roads or rail links to the region. There is a government effort to use more renewable energy sources, which is generally supported by

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1628-537: Is the largest, easternmost, and northernmost territory of Canada . It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act , which provided this territory to the Inuit for self-government. The boundaries had been drawn in 1993. The creation of Nunavut resulted in the first major change to Canada's political map in half

1702-454: The 2021 census , the permanent population was recorded as 0. Alert is named after HMS  Alert , a British ship that wintered about 10 km (6.2 mi) away in 1875–76. The ship's captain, George Nares , and his crew were the first recorded Europeans to reach the northern end of Ellesmere Island . Over the following decades, several other expeditions passed through the area, most notably Robert Peary during his expedition to reach

1776-644: The COVID-19 pandemic. The government barred entry to almost all non-residents. On November 6, 2020, Nunavut confirmed its first case in Sanikiluaq , having previously been the only place in North America to have had no cases of COVID-19. Nunavut covers 1,836,993.78 km (709,267.26 sq mi) of land and 160,930 km (62,137 sq mi) of water in Northern Canada. The territory includes part of

1850-572: The Government of Canada for the relocation of Inuit to the High Arctic . Discussions on dividing the Northwest Territories along ethnic lines began in the 1950s, and legislation to achieve this was introduced in 1963. After its failure, a federal commission recommended against such a measure. During the 1970s, activism increased among the Inuit, First Nations , and Innu peoples for recognition of their forced assimilation . In 1976, as part of

1924-535: The Inuit language ( Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun ), known as Inuktut , English, and French. In his 2000 commissioned report ( Aajiiqatigiingniq Language of Instruction Research Paper ) to the Nunavut Department of Education, Ian Martin of York University said that a "long-term threat to Inuit languages from English is found everywhere, and current school language policies and practices on language are contributing to that threat" if Nunavut schools follow

1998-646: The North Pole in 1909. Shortly after the end of World War II , Charles J. Hubbard of the United States Weather Bureau aroused interest in the United States and Canada for the establishment of a network of Arctic stations. His plan, in broad perspective, envisaged the establishment of two main stations, one in Greenland and the other on the archipelago, which could be reached by sea supply. These main stations would then serve as advance bases from which

2072-724: The Nunavut Arctic College , as well as several Arctic research stations located within the territory. The new Canadian High Arctic Research Station CHARS is planning for Cambridge Bay and high north Alert Bay Station. Iqaluit hosts the annual Nunavut Mining Symposium every April, a tradeshow that showcases the many economic activities ongoing in Nunavut. Baffinland is the territory's largest private sector employer with more than 2,600 workers and accounted for 23 per cent of Nunavut's economic activity in 2019. There are currently three major mines in operation in Nunavut. Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd – Meadowbank Division. Meadowbank Gold Mine

2146-687: The Roly McLenahan Torch that was used to light the flame at Whitehorse , Yukon , for the Canada Winter Games , passed through Alert. While the Canada Games torch was supposed to pass over the North Pole, bad weather prevented a Canadian military Twin Otter from making the trip. The torch did not travel outside Alert that weekend (April 9–12). In August 2006, Prime Minister, Stephen Harper , made

2220-597: The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), died in a crash while making an airdrop of supplies to the station. The last United States personnel were withdrawn on October 31, 1970, and the following year operation of the weather station was transferred to the newly created Department of the Environment , with the Department of Transport retaining control of airfield operations for several more years. In April 1971,

2294-637: The button accordion from Austria . Alert, Nunavut Alert , in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut , Canada, is the northernmost continuously inhabited place in the world. The location is on Ellesmere Island (in the Queen Elizabeth Islands ) at latitude 82°30'05" north, 817 km (508 mi) from the North Pole . It takes its name from the Royal Navy vessel HMS  Alert , which wintered 10 km (6.2 mi) east of

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2368-549: The 2011 Census. The percentage of population which is non-religious has grown from 13% in 2011 to 24.9% in 2021 Census. About 1.6% of the population reported another religious affiliation including Aboriginal spirituality, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, and others. The economy of Nunavut is driven by the Inuit and Territorial Government, mining, oil, gas, and mineral exploration, arts, crafts, hunting, fishing, whaling, tourism, transportation, housing development, military, research, and education. Currently, one college operates in Nunavut,

2442-490: The Canadian Arctic Aerosol Sampling Network (CAASN). By 1984, the number of ongoing monitoring programs and the amount of experimental research had outgrown the abilities of the weather station to maintain, and plans were made for the construction of a permanent observatory. This observatory, 400 m (1,300 ft) southwest of Lancaster Hall (more commonly known as the far transmitter building),

2516-401: The Canadian average—a trend that continues. Between 2011 and 2016, Nunavut had the highest population growth rate of any Canadian province or territory, at a rate of 12.7%. The second-highest was Alberta, with a growth rate of 11.6%. Between 2016 and 2021, the population growth increased by 2.5% (the third lowest), a decrease of 10.2 percentiles from the previous census. Official languages are

2590-536: The Dorset and Norse are controversial. The Thule people , ancestors of the modern Inuit , began migrating from Alaska in the 11th century into the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. By 1300, the geographic extent of Thule settlement included most of modern Nunavut. The migration of the Thule people coincides with the decline of the Dorset. Thule people genetically and culturally completely replaced Dorset some time after 1300. The earliest written historical account of

2664-660: The Government of Nunavut and the NFB jointly announced the launch of a DVD and online collection entitled Unikkausivut (Inuktitut: Sharing Our Stories ), which will make over 100 NFB films by and about Inuit available in Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun and other Inuit languages, as well as English and French. The Government of Nunavut is distributing Unikkausivut to every school in the territory. The music of Nunavut includes Inuit throat singing and drum-led dancing, along with country music , bluegrass , fiddling , square dancing and

2738-606: The JAWS project, the Canadian Armed Forces had been interested in the establishment at Alert for several reasons: the JAWS facility extended Canadian sovereignty over a large uninhabited area which Canada claimed as its sovereign territory, and its proximity to the Soviet Union made it of strategic importance. Alert is closer to Moscow (c. 4,000 km (2,500 mi)) than it is to Ottawa (c. 4,150 km (2,580 mi)). Thus,

2812-494: The Northwest Territories model. He provided a 20-year language plan to create a "fully functional bilingual society, in Inuktitut and English" by 2020. The plan provided different models, including: Of the 34,960 responses to the census question concerning "mother tongue" in the 2016 census, the most commonly reported languages in Nunavut were: At the time of the census, only English and French were counted as official languages. Figures shown are for single-language responses and

2886-404: The Northwest Territories on the mainland and a few Arctic islands, and with Manitoba to the south of the Nunavut mainland; it also meets Saskatchewan to the southwest at a quadripoint , and has a short land border with Newfoundland and Labrador on Killiniq Island . The boundary with the Northwest Territories roughly approximates the tree line in Canada. Nunavut shares maritime borders with

2960-619: The RCAF officially took responsibility for CFS Alert from Canadian Forces Information Operations Group (CFIOG). On April 13, 2006, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the heating costs for the station had risen, as a consequence of which the military proposed to cut back on support trade positions by using private contractors. By 2008, maintenance operations on the station—including food and housekeeping services, vehicle maintenance, powerplant operation, and heating, electrical, and plumbing—had been transferred to

3034-529: The RCN, RCAF, and Canadian Army to form the Canadian Armed Forces saw Alert Wireless Station change its name to Canadian Forces Station Alert (CFS Alert). Its personnel were no longer drawn from only the air force or navy, but primarily from the Canadian Forces Communications Command. At its peak, CFS Alert had upwards of 215 personnel posted at any one time. The station became a key asset in

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3108-518: The area is dated to 1576, an account by English explorer Martin Frobisher . While leading an expedition to find the Northwest Passage , Frobisher thought he had discovered gold ore around the body of water now known as Frobisher Bay on the coast of Baffin Island . The ore turned out to be worthless, but Frobisher made the first recorded European contact with the Inuit. Other explorers in search of

3182-557: The community. This support comes from Nunavut feeling the effects of global warming . Former Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak said in 2011, " Climate change is very much upon us. It is affecting our hunters, the animals, the thinning of the ice is a big concern, as well as erosion from permafrost melting." The region is warming about twice as fast as the global average, according to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Northern Transportation Company Limited , owned by Norterra,

3256-515: The east, was chosen by a capital plebiscite in 1995 . Other major communities include the regional centres of Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay . Nunavut includes Ellesmere Island in the far north, the eastern and southern portions of Victoria Island in the west, and all islands in Hudson, James and Ungava bays, including the western portion of Killiniq Island in the southeast and Akimiski Island far to

3330-532: The elusive Northwest Passage followed in the 17th century, including Henry Hudson , William Baffin and Robert Bylot . Cornwallis and Ellesmere Islands featured in the history of the Cold War in the 1950s. Concerned about the area's strategic geopolitical position, the federal government, as part of the High Arctic relocation , relocated Inuit from Nunavik (northern Quebec ) to Resolute and Grise Fiord . In

3404-503: The end of August. Being far north of the Arctic Circle , Alert experiences polar night from October 14 to February 28, and midnight sun from April 7 to September 4. There are two relatively short periods of twilight from about February 13 to March 22 and the second from September 19 to October 22. Nautical twilight lasts from October 29 to February 11. Astronomical twilight , where 24 hours are in effect completely dark with only

3478-428: The existing operations building, built in 1956. The operations building housed the radio intercept and cryptographic equipment. On September 1, 1958, control of the station was transferred from the air force to the army, and it officially began operations. The following decade saw a dramatic expansion of the station, with a correspondingly greater number of personnel stationed there. The February 1, 1968, unification of

3552-547: The facility was passed to DND's Information Management Group following the disbanding of CF Communications Command with force restructuring and cutbacks in the mid-1990s. With Canada's commitment to the global war on terrorism following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City and Arlington County, Virginia, CFS Alert has received renewed and increased funding to expand its SIGINT capabilities. On April 1, 2009,

3626-667: The global ECHELON network of the AUSCANNZUKUS intelligence sharing alliance, also known as " Five Eyes ", with Alert being privy to many secret Soviet communications regarding land-based and sea-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test launches and many operational military deployments. The first military women to serve in Alert arrived in 1980 as part of the Canadian Forces' Women In Non-Traditional Roles study. After its completion in 1983, women were fully authorized to serve in all roles. The first female commanding officer

3700-483: The horizons" of selected youth by offering training, recreational, and cultural opportunities that may not be available in their local community. The JCR Program is funded by the Government of Canada , through DND and the Canadian Armed Forces . The Canadian Ranger Patrol Groups, under command of the Canadian Army , oversees the conduct of the program at a regional or provincial level. Nunavut Nunavut

3774-481: The land claims negotiations between the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (then called the "Inuit Tapirisat of Canada") and the federal government, the parties discussed division of the Northwest Territories to provide a separate territory for the Inuit. On April 14, 1982, a plebiscite on division was held throughout the Northwest Territories. A majority of the residents voted in favour and the federal government gave

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3848-539: The land masses involved were under Canadian and Danish control. Following negotiations between the United States and Canadian governments, a group of five weather stations was established, known as the Joint Arctic Weather Stations (JAWS). On the Canadian side, the stations were to be operated by the Department of Transport (DOT). The locations for each station were surveyed in 1946, and a cache of supplies

3922-408: The largest portion of visitors from outside the territory. The majority of visitors from outside of Nunavut are business travellers; in the second half of 2018 only 14% of visitors were in the territory for leisure. Tourism recreation in Nunavut include activities like dog sledding, snowmobiling, cultural festivals, hiking, arctic wildlife safaris and sea kayaking. The Inuit Broadcasting Corporation

3996-596: The mainland, most of the Arctic Archipelago, and all of the islands in Hudson Bay , James Bay , and Ungava Bay , including the Belcher Islands , all of which were part of the Northwest Territories from which Nunavut was separated. This makes it the fifth-largest subnational entity (or administrative division ) in the world. If Nunavut were a country, it would rank 15th in area. Nunavut has long land borders with

4070-644: The multi-territory regional Kivalliq News . The film production company Isuma is based in Igloolik. Co-founded by Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn in 1990, the company produced the 1999 feature Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner , winner of the Caméra d'Or for Best First Feature Film at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival . It was the first feature film written, directed, and acted entirely in Inuktitut . The National Film Board (NFB) has released Animation from Cape Dorset (1973),

4144-463: The next year in protected areas, but enough melts to prevent glaciation. The warmest month, July, has an average temperature of 3.4 °C (38.1 °F), with only July and August averaging above freezing, and those are also the months where well over 90 per cent of the rainfall, which averages only 17.4 mm (0.69 in) per year, occurs. Rain is rare in June and September and virtually unheard of during

4218-477: The northeastern tip of Ellesmere Island , on the shore of the ice-covered Lincoln Sea . Alert lies just 817 km (508 mi) from the North Pole ; the nearest Canadian city is Iqaluit , the capital of the territory of Nunavut, 2,092 km (1,300 mi) distant. The settlement is surrounded by rugged hills and valleys. The shore is composed primarily of slate and shale . Argillite and greywacke also occur. Some of these rocks are calcareous . The sea

4292-399: The on-site staff considerably. Its current population ranges from a winter minimum of 65 to a summer maximum of 110, plus a variety of short-term visitors, who can swell the total to 150 or more. Alert’s temporary population typically consist of both military personnel and civilians, both making up an almost one-to-one ratio in Alert. Alert is 12 km (7.5 mi) west of Cape Sheridan ,

4366-422: The percentage of total single-language responses. In the 2016 census it was reported that 2,045 people (5.8%) living in Nunavut had no knowledge of either official language of Canada (English or French). The 2016 census also reported that of the 30,135 Inuit in Nunavut, 90.7% could speak either Inuktitut or Inuinnaqtun. In the 2021 census, Christianity constituted 73.5% of Nunavut's population, down from 86% in

4440-488: The possibility of utilizing the site for the purpose of intercepting radio signals was deemed to warrant a military presence. In 1950, Alert Airport was established. It is the only airport serving the settlement and is presently part of CFS Alert . In 1956, the RCAF, which was expanding its presence throughout the high Arctic with the construction of the Distant Early Warning Line radar network, established

4514-550: The present station off what is now Cape Sheridan in 1875–1876. All Alert residents are temporary, typically serving three- to six-month tours of duty there. They staff a military signals intelligence radio receiving facility at Canadian Forces Station Alert ( CFS Alert , which includes Alert Airport ), as well as the Dr. Neil Trivett Global Atmosphere Watch Observatory , a co-located weather station and monitoring observatory, both operated by Environment and Climate Change Canada . In

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4588-421: The prime minister's office, the Canadian Armed Forces , the federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development , as well as a large media group including Pat Carney of Gemini Productions, Ed Ogle of Time magazine, Val Wake of CBC News , and a television crew from California. While waiting in Alert for a weather window to fly to the pole, the party's television crew spent a lot of time filming at

4662-494: The provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba. With Greenland, a constituent country of the Danish Realm , it shares a primarily maritime international border that includes a short land border on Hans Island . Nunavut's highest point is Barbeau Peak (2,616 m (8,583 ft)) on Ellesmere Island. The population density is 0.022/km (0.056/sq mi), one of the lowest in the world. By comparison, Greenland has approximately

4736-411: The remaining eight months of the year. Alert is the fourth-driest locality in Nunavut and averaging only 158.3 mm (6.23 in) of precipitation per year, the vast majority of this occurring as snow. The heaviest snowfalls occur during July to October, and Alert sees relatively little snowfall during the winter months. September is usually the month with the heaviest snowfall. The relative humidity

4810-429: The same area and nearly twice the population. Nunavut experiences a polar climate in most regions, owing to its high latitude and lower continental summertime influence than areas to the west. In more southerly continental areas, very cold subarctic climates can be found, due to July being slightly milder than the required 10 °C (50 °F). Visible minority and indigenous identity (2016): Nunavut has

4884-516: The south of the rest of the territory. It is Canada's only geopolitical region that is not connected to the rest of North America via the Pan-American Highway . Nunavut is the least densely populated major country sub-division in the world (not considering Antarctica), being even less densely populated than Denmark's Greenland . With a population of 36,858 as of the 2021 Canadian census (up from 35,944 in 2016) consisting mostly of Inuit, and

4958-482: The south) is the nearest populated place in Greenland. Hans Island which from 2023 has a land border with Greenland , a territory of Denmark , is located 197 km (122 mi) to the south. Alert has a polar climate , technically a tundra climate ( ET ) with characteristics of an ice cap climate (EF). There is complete snow cover for at least 10 months of the year on average and snow from one year persists into

5032-616: The start of the Nunavut Animation Lab, offering animation training to Nunavut artists at workshops in Iqaluit, Cape Dorset and Pangnirtung. Films from the Nunavut Animation Lab include Alethea Arnaquq-Baril 's 2010 digital animation short Lumaajuuq , winner of the Best Aboriginal Award at the Golden Sheaf Awards and named Best Canadian Short Drama at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival . In November 2011,

5106-431: The station and nearby Ward Hunt Island . In August 1986, the Government of Canada opened Alert Background Air Pollution Monitoring Network . By the 1990s, the original buildings of the original weather station had fallen into disrepair and were burned in the summer of 1996, leaving only the hydrogen shed and a wooden outhouse. The weather station and observatory offices were moved to Polaris Hall. In early April 2006,

5180-722: The unfamiliar and hostile conditions, they faced starvation but were forced to stay. Forty years later, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples issued a report titled The High Arctic Relocation: A Report on the 1953–55 Relocation . The government paid compensation to those affected and their descendants. On August 18, 2010, in Inukjuak, the Honourable John Duncan , PC, MP , previous Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians formally apologized on behalf of

5254-507: The weather station. The military was unhappy about the film crew working on the station, but the weather station was seen as being a sort of no-man's land. The commissioner's party made two attempts to reach the pole and failed. Some of the incidents surrounding this event are recounted in Val Wake's memoir My Voyage around Spray with Apologies to Captain Joshua Slocum . In August 1975, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and his then three-year-old son, future prime minister Justin Trudeau , visited

5328-906: Was Major Cathy Cowan, who took command in January 1996. The first female Station Warrant Officer (SWO), MWO Renee Hansen, was appointed in December 2017. Budget cuts to the Department of National Defence (DND) and Canadian Forces in 1994 and modernization of communications equipment saw CFS Alert downsized to approximately 74 personnel by 1997–1998, when most radio-intercept operations were remotely controlled by personnel at CFS Leitrim . Remaining personnel are responsible for airfield operations, construction/engineering, food service, and logistical/administrative support. As of 2024, there are about 55 people stationed at CFS Alert, and they consist of military personnel, ECCC and other civilian employees. Only six persons are now responsible for actual operations, and control of

5402-523: Was dropped at Alert in 1948 by USS Edisto . Alert was the last of the five to be settled when the first twelve personnel (eight permanent staff and four to assist with construction) arrived on April 9, 1950. Construction began immediately, with the first priority being the creation of an ice runway on Alert Inlet before work began on the permanent all-season runway on Cape Belknap. Until its completion, supplies were parachuted in. On July 30, 1950, nine crew members of an Avro Lancaster aircraft, operated by

5476-614: Was opened August 29, 1986. Originally known as the Alert Background Air Pollution Monitoring Network (BAPMoN) Observatory, it was subsequently renamed the Dr. Neil Trivett Global Atmosphere Watch Observatory in honour of the Environment Canada researcher who provided the impetus for its construction. The observatory employs two technicians who reside at CFS Alert, an operator and an assistant operator (normally

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