American Reacts to Nunavut's Only City (Iqaluit) 

My husband and I lived in Iqaluit from 2010 until 2016. It was an amazing experience. The houses are on metal posts because of the perms frost. The house we lived in was built about 25 years ago so there was no municipal plumbing, meaning that although we had running water and fully functional bathrooms and a furnace our water was trucked in regularity and there was a huge water container in our furnace room that would be filled from a pipe outside. Our sewage was in a tank underneath our house and pumped out every few days. There were people there, working, from all over the world. The Inuit, although many suffering from poverty and the inter generational trauma of colonialism and residential schools, were very welcoming and kind. Before Tim Hortons came up there we never forgot to bring back donuts if we flew out to Ottawa, Montreal, or Winnipeg! There is lots to do in Iqaluit and a few great restaurants. There were always concerts and fun events. Check out RU-vid for more of the rich culture of these amazing human beings who survived and thrived long before explorers arrived. I miss these people.

I love the sound of the snow crunching under his feet. I can’t imagine living without winter.

Narwhal are real, and they can reproduce with the beluga, their hybrid offspring is called a narluga. The horn of the narwhal is actually a tooth that grows in spiral through their lip. The narluga does not have the spiral tooth/tusk, but observation from a skull shows that all their teeth have a spiral to them instead. There is a lost narwhal that has been adopted by a pod of belugas in the St-Lawrence river.

Nunavut was originally part of the Northwest Territory, but was made its own Territory and is governed by the Inuit. The Northwest Territory still exists, but smaller land area now.

The Hudson Bay Company had an outpost on the beach at Apex which is just out of town. It was shut down decades ago, but I lived in the HBC staff house. The warehouse that was on the beach, was moved from Apex down the bay to Iqaluit. The museum had been open since 1969 and had been moved to several buildings. The museum society had enough donations and help to have the old HBC building moved, and the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit museum moved in. It was much smaller, and they had a big renovation after I left working there as an archivist. In 1941, USNR was looking to build bases. Crystal I was Kuujjuaq. Crystal II was Iqaluit ( formerly Frobisher Bay). The base was built partly because for refuelling and a weather station. They used barrels and set fires to light for the runway when they first arrived. It was in operation until about 1948 when it was handed back to Canada after the war. It was a temporary station. A few years later, the DEW line Distant Early Warning system was built. The station at Iqaluit was shut down in 1993. The Nunatsiaq Newspaper offices are in the former headquarters building the USNR used. Because of the base, they built a road over the next hill and moved some local Inuit to Apex. They built all the roadways and main buildings. When they left, the US left equipment behind. The power generators were still bring used when I left. Power would go out for no reason for hours at a time. Because of the permafrost and rock, you can’t dig for infrastructure. So in your home, you have a 250 gallon tank for water and a 250 gallon tank for sewage. There is a pump truck for each. If you run out of water, you have to wait until the next day. Education includes Arctic College which is situated next to the airport, Joamie School and the High School. Most of the year you can fly in. But in mid December due to weather, there are no flights. In the summer months cargo ships come in for the sealift. Order dry goods and it is cheaper than flights. It can be so cold that ice crystals can be seen in the air, and when the sun is in the air, they pick up the light and reflect it. It’s called a sundog. In the winter you can see the Northern Lights. I left there in 1994. My father moved out in 2011 after being there since 1982. He was a drug and alcohol councillor and a justice of the peace. Dry community? yes. no liquor store. You can’t buy it yourself in town. BUT there are bars, restaurants and hotels that serve alcohol. You can also have alcohol shipped from the south with a liquor permit which states you can’t sell it. So there are work arounds for those that are determined to get some. Nunavut became a territory in 1999. The Northwest Territories was divided to make up the new territory after a large land claims agreement and gave the Inuit independent government. The previous change to Canada’s map had taken place in 1949 when Newfoundland & Labrador joined Confederation.

There are several places in Canada's north that you cannot drive to including in our provinces. Roads would be difficult to build and maintain in that kind of environment especially on the permafrost and muskeg.

My younger brother worked in Nunavut for many years running the most northerly Coca Cola bottling plant in the world. He told me some interesting stories about that. He said the Coca Cola folks came to inspect. They asked if they had sprayed for bugs, my brother said too far north, no bugs. They asked about treated water and were told the water wasn’t treated. They tested it and said it was the best they had ever tested. (This was in the 1990s) They could not ship up cylinders of compressed CO2, so they ran a diesel furnace and captured CO2 out of the exhaust. (Carbon capture) Interesting stories. My brother has since passed. RIP Brian.

On Jan 15 of this year, Iqaluit had a higher temperature than Vancouver and Victoria, usually the mildest places in Canada in winter, and even hotter than Houston, Texas. Go figure! It was a record high temp for Iqualuit in the winter, 3.3c, which is in the late 30's F. Weather's been absolutely wonky this year!

My best friend and her family lived in Iqaluit for 15 years. She was a nurse and he works with the only airline that goes there, that goes to Ottawa and back. He's finishing out his contract with them, and she and the kids have moved back to Newfoundland where her family is, as her son has autism and he is getting older and needs more help than Iqaluit can offer. They LOVED Iqaluit!

I went to Iqaluit twice for work, well only as a stop over and never got out of the airport building. So I actually went to Qikiqtarjuaq, which is closer to Greenland than it is to Iqaluit (300ish km north of Iqaluit) and to Clyde River, which is in the polar circle, maybe 5-600km north of Iqaluit. Every building material is shipped by boat, so when working on jobs, we had to have almost all or material shipped by boat during the summer. Also always keep in mind that google maps, and most maps, use Mercator projection which distorts north and south proportions, so if you take a look at Nunavut on google Earth instead, you'll see the real dimension.

Fun fact: pop star Gary Numan is also an aviation nut, and made two attempts to fly around the world in the same plane. On his second attempt, he had to make an emergency landing in Iqaluit (then called "Frobisher Bay"). After landing, it was determined that he needed some replacement parts - none of which were available there. Arrangements were made for he and his co-pilot to fly to Calgary, purchase the necessary parts, and return to Frobisher Bay to install them. This was successful and he was able to complete his Around The World Tour. :) I talked to him about it when he visited Calgary in 2013 and he couldn't say enough kind things about EVERYONE he met in Frobisher/Iqaluit. He told me he'd like to revisit the place someday. I echo that sentiment - I'd LOVE to see that place in person before I die :)

You should look into Nunavik, a large region of northern Quebec where a lot of inuit live. There are 14 villages (smaller than Iqaluit) and even though they’re in Quebec, they’re even more remote than Iqaluit. No roads go there either. Only airplanes (or boats in summer) can go. Nunavik even own its own airline, Air Inuit. Check it out, it’s fascinating!

I will never forget arguing with my daughter how Canada had 2 territories.. ì sarcastically asked her what the 3rd territory was and she quickly answered Nunavut. It didn't exist when I went to school

Thanks Tyler! I’m Canadian and I learned a lot.

Nunavut's most northerly settlement is at Alert on Ellesmere Island, and is just 500 miles from the North Pole. Iqaluit is over 1300 miles further south west than Alert - a tiny place of about 100 people. Alert's lowest temperature, without wind chill, is -50 C, and each year the sun doesn't appear above the horizon from late August to mid April. 🥶

when playing hockey outdoors, the sport warms your body up from skating and shooting or passing the puck

Temperatures in the -30C is quite normal for winter in most of Canada. On the prairies this is a normal winter temperature and we would still have people running from the dorms to dining room in shorts and flip flops 😆

My sister lived in Iqaluit for 10 years - it is a beautiful place to visit and well worth seeing!

Um, Tyler, there is a place in Alaska called Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow) that has a high school football field mere feet away from the Arctic Ocean.

Just found out you can see the Northern Lights ftom Iqaluit from October to April!!! Just added to my Canadian Bucket List!

I used to work at a mine at Baffin Island 200 KM north of Iqaluit

Many places in the north are accessible by ice roads during the winter months. Muskeg and permafrost are a real challenge when it comes to building and maintaining roads in the north. Winnipeg, Manitoba is much further south and it is damned cold...earning its nickname "Winterpeg".

You should watch O Siem by Susan Aglukark. She is an Inuit singer who had her first breakout hit outside of Inuit communities back in 1995 (O Siem). I remember the video for the song stuck out to me at the time because of the beautiful Inuit imagery which we didn't see much of. She grew up in what is now Nunavut (then it was part of North West Territories).

Nunavut is indeed large, but the way some maps are projected, there is much distortion and it often appears larger than it actually is.

Even I learned things about Iqalulit and was reminded of things I had forgotten. I always enjoy seeing my country through your eyes. 🇨🇦

Nunavut used to be part of the Northwest Territories. A place has to meet certain criteria to become a city. Iqualuit met those criteria by being the capital. There will be towns, villages and hamlets. The third language on the stop sign is Inuktitut. The band The Jerry Cans used to sing in Inuktitut. The did a cover of the Hip's Ahead By a Century.

The road the furthest north in Canada essentially connects Dawson City in the Yukon territory to Tuktoyaktuk, in the Northwest Territories. Tuk is on the Arctic Ocean near the mouth of the great MacKenzie River.

Thanks for another great video! But -32c is nothing lol. I'm in central Alberta and we had -49°C WITHOUT windchill 😅

My wife's friend and her husband lived in Iqaluit for a few years, working for the government. They enjoyed it there, but moved back to Ottawa to start their family. All cars there have to be brought in by boat as there is clearly no roads to Iqaluit. The main road was paved when the Queen came to visit, however the municipality said that this was merely a coincident, and they had planned to do it anyways. They had to keep sleeping bags, change of clothes, and other "over night" things at their office in the event of a blizzard and it was not safe to travel home. They also claimed that you mostly walked everywhere, and that driving was only really needed to carry large things like groceries.

I was born there in 1962 and moved to Ontario when I was a year old. I’ve never been back but would love to do that trip one day. My mom still has a fair bit of Inuit art and Inuit made baby booties that I wore as an infant. Beautiful workmanship.

Their are trails on Baffin Island that are used by snowmobiles in winter and off-road vehicles in summer. The locals use these vehicles to go to their cabins outside their communities or to go hunting.

I was there for just over a week a few years ago, was minus 45 everyday. Only 1 hour of daylight in the winter.

Tyler, believe it or not, it can be too cold to skate. The blade actually melts a thin layer of ice which virtually eliminates friction. If it's too cold, the ice never melts and the skates stick to the ice.

Those flights up to Iqaluit are extremely expensive, even $2000 from Winnipeg.

Some of my fondest work memories are in Nunavut back when it was still the NWT amazing people and amazing land.

Canadians generally call personal snowmobiles ski-doos, even though that is only a brand name for the most popular make of snowmobile.

Obviously the RCMP has a difficult time getting officers to report there for any length of time. My friend was stationed there on a temporary basis

My parents lived in Inuvik in the Northwest Territories. its Smaller than Iqaluit and even further north! They still have some caribou skin parkas and other clothing/jewelry made by locals. From the stories I've heard it was an amazing, and welcoming community. Difficult to live there though

Nunavut was split off of the Northwest Territory and part of Northern Quebec

I truly appreciate how respectful you are when you try to understand about our Native peoples and our Country as a whole! Your sense of respect is second to none! Thank you sir for giving us the respect we give you,. It is appreciated and respected, our friend. Our door is always open for you. We will serve you pancakes with maple syrup, a Moose steak. Just give us a call!🇨🇦❤️😀😀

Fun fact: all of Nunavut has only one 35 bed hospital in Iqaluit (though there are health centres in other towns), so many people are flown in to Winnipeg (Manitoba) for healthcare, especially if they need to be admitted to hospital. I often have pediatric patients from Nunavut where I work.

A lot of northern areas in Canada are not connected by road to anything, even in Quebec the furthest north you can drive is probably only about halfway through the province in the area where hydroelectric dams were built. Further up, despite there being settlements, you can only fly in. So considering Nunavut is even higher up it makes sense that you can't really even build roads because of the terrain. Besides it would be incredibly remote even if you could have a road!

I Qaluit was called Frobisher Bay until Nunavut split from The Northwest Territories.

I was genuinely surprised when you learned new information about Canada! I thought you were gaining more info than Canadians!

Iqaluit looks more like a small town than a city. I'd expect more high rise buildings and tall business buildings in a city. I remember in elementary school, we only learned about NWT and Yukon. I think Nunavut wasn't covered in social studies class until I was in high school. No sidewalks in Iqaluit? How are pedestrians supposed to stay safe? I'm glad he answered that question every Canadian wanted to know, if they had a Tim Horton's restaurant. No addresses? I wouldn't be able to find my way around because I rely on street names and house and building numbers so much. That church is the shape of an igloo looks awesome! Yes, Narwhals are real aquatic animals. They're in Baffin Bay and Hudson Bay.

My ex-hub's step-brother lives there & is married to an Inuit woman! The narwhal is a REAL horned whale, and the fur clothing is actually made from mostly seals b/c it's not only very soft but also water proof! Thanks for wondering about our MANY amazing places!

A friend of mine is an RCMP officer who was stationed in Nunavut. He'd have groceries flown in once a month due to everything there being expensive and not much variation

@7:06; Nunavut was created from the former, and still standing Northwest Territories, ironically east of the Yukon, which is arguably further northwest.

My friend just graduated piloting school and his first job as a pilot is to work for one of the companies that flies into the far north of Quebec and mabe nuvavut, he posted a picture of a polar bear on his facebook and the next day it made the morning news because that bear got shot to make sure it didn’t eat anyone since they are extremely dangerous. Anyway he loves flying and he gets to do it in some of the coolest places in Quebec.

From Iqaliut there are flights that go futher north to communities on Baffin Island and to the community of Resolute on Cornwallis Island. The airport at Resolute is actually quite busy in the summer as a lot of research is done using it as a base of operations.

In Canada we no longer use the term Eskimo; but the term Inuit. I believe the term Eskimo was taken from the Cree who live in the Boreal forest area of Canada, just south of the tundra. It meant something like 'people who eat raw meat'. I believe the term Inuit essentially means 'The People'. Its possible that the Cree still use this word; does anyone know?

This is where I live! I just moved here a few months ago, and I absolutely love it! Not only are there no roads TO Nunavut, but there are 25 communities in Nunavut, and there are no roads between any of the communities. Most of the Inuit drive by Snowmobile from one community to another. On a side note, Narwhals are very real, and I have eaten Narwhal...I did not enjoy it lol.

Tyler, most neighbourhoods in Ontario have community rinks at parks when it’s cold enough. It’s maintained by community members.

I believe Amazon doesn't offer next day delivery to Iqaluit

There are very few roads in northwest territories and northern Manitoba. In fact, you have to fly just to visit some places in northern Manitoba like Churchill

The stone in front of the Legislature is interesting. In the top left and right corners you have its name in the Inuit language (Inukitut) in two different scripts. One uses a script based on one from India and the other uses a latin script.

My uncle Arty and aunt Sharron used to live there for years. They moved out there for the pay but left around the time my aunt got cancer. They would bring back squirrel burgers for us to try which was pretty cool (lots of hunters in my family so not too unusual)

The town grew quickly following the creation of Nunavut and the subsequent selection of Iqaliut as its capital by referendum. Many of the residents are government employees and some even commute to Ottawa (i.e. they work in Iqaliut but their family lives in Ottawa).

Former NHL hockey player, Jordin Tootoo is from Rankin Inlet

Tyler, if you look at the Nunavut flag, it has an Inukshuk. The Inukshuk would make a great topic for a video!

It's only -10 there today. -7 here in Edmonton.

That statue picture on the seal of Iqaluit that you called an igloo is actually called a Inukshuk and they are found all over our country. They were used as a form of communication. I’m sure you can find a video about them. They are a part of Canadian culture for sure

There was a Hudson Bay trading post in the Frobisher Bay area to serve southern Baffin Island. In fact Frobisher Bay was the earlier name for Iqaliut. The bay and the town were named after the English explorer Martin Frobisher who visited the area in 1576. He was trying to get to China!

I moved here in July 2023, I love the weather because it's not hot, the coldest it's been here this winter is around -54, the wind certainly has a bite to it. I would suggest to anyone coming up here is to have a vehicle, as everything is not as close as people think. There are no trees. There are a lot of different cultures up here. They have nice places to eat and there is always something to do. It is expensive. A taxi run costs you $10 one way for one person, if there is two people, it costs you $20 one way.

I really enjoyed your video and comments plus learning more and remembering what I learned and experiencing about the world around me.

My hometown is Winnipeg or known as ‘Winterpeg.’ It gets so cold that even the ‘Golden Boy,’ also suffer from ‘Shrinkage.’ - 40 C is normal here and can last for months.

Tyler, the license plates for the northwest territories was actually shaped like a polar, not rectangular like every other plate in the world. Don't know if it's still that way but if you Google polar bear license plates you'll see it, and have probably seen it before too. Very iconic. Do Rockefeller sq in NYC still have a skating rink?

Yes Nunavut only became a territory in 1999. Before that it was part of the Northwest Territories. The Northwest Territories split into two, the eartern part became Nunavut.

You should check out the discovery of the Franklin an old ship that was lost in the ice

As an average Canadian, I’m glad to learn, again today, about Canada. Thanks Tyler. Great videos !!

Roads are difficult due to permafrost. Even the northern parts of the provinces are difficult to access by road

"You can go thru the Tim Horton's drive-thru on your snowmobile." Now you are thinking like a real Canadian!!

just a note, building tall buildings in places where the ground is permanently frozen (permafrost) is pretty much impossible. Also the time window for construction is small. Another note the Inuit clothing was ingenious. They made a leather from large marine mammal intestines that made the material permeable in one direction, i.e. the way that nutrients are absorbed. The original dry tech clothing 👍

Fun fact, Baffin Island, where Iqaluit sits, is twice the size of the UK. Baffin Island’s population is 11,000. The UK’s population is 67 million.

Its a very beautiful place to live in. I miss the cold feeling of it

It's true, there's no official road going in or out of Nunavut. But you can drive there by trails and ice roads when the lakes are frozen. I don't recommend trying so if you don't know exactly what you are doing though, it would be a death sentence.

there are parts of northern manitoba that don't have roads to it either other than in winter for the ice road to form

I saw a website for a golf course in Nunavut. It said it was the coolest golf course in the world :)

I have seen that video before. I think it was so interesting.. I would love to stop by that town for a night.

My sister lived in Baker Lake for years. She set up different programs for the people. She loved it. Btw it's In-oo-it not in yew it

One time during a blizzard the wind was gusting up to 70km/h

It is nice to see Tyler finally look at a map for once... It only took two years...

Not only is it hard to ship materials up here, the planning has to worry about the permafrost melting and creating a hazard

There are some areas in northern Canada that are accessable in the winter by an ice road. These can only be made after the lakes and rivers freeze mid winter until the ground and water starts to thaw in early spring. The average opening date is approx mid December closing date is sometime in April. Warm weather will affect these dates. During the summer months since areas are only accessable by boats or planes. The cost of groceries and essentials are very expensive due to the cost of freight.

Thank you for your entertaining views. Please take a gander at Pangnirtung. Beautiful place

The walrus bone you noted is called a baculum

It is never too cold to play hockey !

That's the largest community there no doubt, But there's also like over 25 communities of varying sizes. It all depends on what you use as the determining factor that makes a city. Some say a few thousand, some say hundreds of thousands. Also Inuit peoples have many many communities across the north that aren't only in Nunavut. Pretty cool people.

I was once on a flight from Edmonton to London and another passenger had a heart attack when we were over Greenland. We turned back to Iqaluit and he was taken off the plane for medical care. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get off the plane and check it out the place.

The look on your face when you questioned the existence of narwhals 😅❤

You were talking about being pranked about narwhals being unicorn fish, actually narwhal tusks were used to prank people by making them believe they were unicorn horns.

Tyler there are no road to capital of Alaska - Juneau too so when it comes to really northern towns or cities it is not that unusual and btw there are no roads in extreme Northern part of Ontario too.

There's a short RU-vid video of a narwhal swimming with a pod of beluga whales, it's beautiful. "Belugas adopt wayward narwhal in Canadian waters".

Thanks for this. I've always been curious about Iqaluit, but at my age, I'm not really intersted in actually going there. Nice to learn about it this way.

I believe their are artefacts from two different arctic peoples. There is the earlier Dorset culture and the later Thule culture. I'm not sure what happened to the people of the Dorset culture following the arrival of the people of the Thule culture from Alaska. The Inuit of today are descendants from the Thule culture. They arrived on Baffin Island about 1000 years ago.about the same time as the Vikings from the east.

Pretty sure the small number was what you're meant to notice on the license plate on the car

There are no sidewalks because they don't need them. It cost a fortune to get a car there. And a car is pretty useless (there is only like four main roads, that only go a 2-3km 1-2 miles.), it can't go all the place a snowmobile can (you can take your snowmobile as far as your gas will take you. Hopefully only half a tanks distance, as the walk home will kill you.).

Most Canadians have never been up there & know nothing about it. think it would be cool to go but the weather would be hard 🥶 for me

I would not have a problem living in a cold area. The problem I would have would be fewer hours of daylight in the winter, though longer hours of daylight in the summer would be nice.

Thanks! I learned some new things as well! 🇨🇦