Канаданың Солтүстік Аймағы

Region of Canada

Northern Canada , colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada, variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. This area covers about 48 per cent of Canada's total land area, but has less than 0.5 per cent of Canada's population. The terms "northern Canada" or "the North" may be used in contrast with the far north, which may refer to the Canadian Arctic, the portion of Canada that lies north of the Arctic Circle, east of Alaska and west of Greenland. However, in many other uses the two areas are treated as a single unit. TOC

Climate Political Habitat Northern development Parts of Northern Canada within the red line are considered to be a part of the Arctic Region according to the average temperature of their warmest month. Political definition of Northern Canada – the "territories" of Canada generally north of the 60th parallel. Barren Grounds and tundra are shown in light blue, and the taiga and boreal forest in dark blue. The three territories and northern portions of seven provinces are defined as northern Canada for northern development purposes by the Conference Board of Canada's Centre for the North, the Northern Development Ministers Forum, and Statistics Canada.

As a social rather than political region, the Canadian North is often subdivided into two distinct regions based on climate, the near north and the far north. The different climates of these two regions result in vastly different vegetation, and therefore very different economies, settlement patterns and histories.

The "near north" or sub Arctic is mostly synonymous with the Canadian boreal forest, a large area of evergreen dominated forests with a subarctic climate. This area has traditionally been home to the Indigenous peoples of the Subarctic, that is the First Nations, who were hunters of moose, freshwater fishers and trappers. This region was heavily involved in the North American fur trade during its peak importance, and is home to many Métis people who originated in that trade. The area was mostly part of Rupert's Land under the nominal control of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) from 1670 to 1869, who regarded Rupert's Land as their proprietary colony. In 1670, King Charles II of England in his grant creating the proprietary colony Rupert's Land defined its frontiers as all the lands adjudging Hudson Strait, Hudson Bay or rivers flowing into Hudson Bay, in theory giving control of much of what is now Canada to the HBC. Under the royal charter of 2 May 1670, the HBC received the theoretical control of making up 40% of what is now Canada. Despite its claim that Rupert's Land was a proprietary colony, the HBC controlled only the areas around its forts (trading posts) on the shores of James Bay and Hudson Bay, and never sought to impose political control on the First Nations peoples, whose co operation was needed for the fur trade. For its first century, the HBC never ventured inland, being content to have the First Nations peoples come to its forts to trade fur for European goods. The HBC started to move inland only in the late 18th century to assert its claim to Rupert's Land in response to rival fur traders coming out of Montreal who were hurting profits by going directly to the First Nations. The HBC's claim to Rupert's Land, which, as the company was the de facto administrator, included the North Western Territory, was purchased by the Canadian government in 1869. After buying Rupert's Land, Canada renamed the area it had purchased the Northwest Territories. Shortly thereafter the government made a series of treaties with the local First Nations regarding land title. This opened the region to non Native settlement, as well as to forestry, mining, and oil and gas drilling. In 1896, gold was discovered in the Yukon, leading to the Klondike Gold Rush in 1896 1899, and the first substantial white settlements were made in the near north. To deal with the increased settlement in the Klondike, the Yukon Territory was created in 1898. Today several million people live in the near north, around 15% of the Canadian total. Large parts of the near north are not part of Canada's territories, but rather are the northern parts of the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, meaning they have very different political histories as minority regions within larger units. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Canada reduced the size of the Northwest Territory by carving new provinces out of it such as Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, together with the new territory of the Yukon, while transferring other parts of the Northwest Territory to Ontario and Quebec.

Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60°W and 141°W longitude, extending all the way north to the North Pole: All islands in the Arctic Archipelago and Herschel, off the Yukon coast, form part of the region and are Canadian territory, and the territorial waters claimed by Canada surround these islands. Views of territorial claims in this region are complicated by disagreements on legal principles. Canada and the Soviet Union/Russia have long claimed that their territory extends according to the sector principle to the North Pole. The United States does not accept the sector principle and does not make a sector claim based on its Alaskan Arctic coast. Claims that undersea geographic features are extensions of a country's continental shelf are also used to support claims; for example the Denmark/Greenland claim on territory to the North Pole, some of which is disputed by Canada. Foreign ships, both civilian and military, are allowed the right of innocent passage through the territorial waters of a littoral state subject to conditions in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The right of innocent passage is not allowed, however, in internal waters, which are enclosed bodies of water or waters landward of a chain of islands. Disagreements about the sector principle or extension of territory to the North Pole and about the definition of internal waters in the Arctic lie behind differences in territorial claims in the Arctic. This claim is recognized by most countries with some exceptions, including the United States; Denmark, Russia, and Norway have made claims similar to those of Canada in the Arctic and are opposed by the European Union and the United States. This is especially important with the Northwest Passage, which Canada asserts control of as part of Canadian Internal Waters because it is within of Canadian islands; however, the United States claims that it is in international waters. As of 2023, ice and freezing temperatures have always made this a minor issue, but climate change may make the passage more accessible to shipping. Furthermore, the thawing of the polar ice cap increases the mutual proximity of Canada and Russia as a result of the historically unusable Arctic Ocean becoming increasingly navigable.

While the largest part of the Arctic is composed of permanent ice and the Canadian Arctic tundra north of the tree line, it encompasses geological regions of varying types: The Innuitian Mountains, associated with the Arctic Cordillera mountain system, are geologically distinct from the Arctic Region (which consists largely of lowlands). The Arctic and Hudson Bay Lowlands comprise a substantial part of the geographic region often considered part of the Canadian Shield (in contrast to the sole geological area). The ground in the Arctic is mostly composed of permafrost, making construction difficult and often hazardous, and agriculture virtually impossible. The Arctic watershed (or drainage basin) drains northern parts of Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia, most of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, and parts of Yukon into the Arctic Ocean, including the Beaufort Sea and Baffin Bay. With the exception of the Mackenzie River, Canada's longest river, this watershed has been little used for hydroelectricity. The Peace and Athabasca rivers, along with Great Bear and Great Slave Lake (respectively the largest and second largest lakes wholly enclosed within Canada), are significant elements of the Arctic watershed. Each of these elements eventually merges with the Mackenzie so that it thereby drains the vast majority of the Arctic watershed.

Under the Köppen climate classification, much of mainland Northern Canada has a subarctic climate, with a tundra climate in most of the Arctic Archipelago and on the northern coasts, and an ice cap climate in some parts of the Arctic Cordillera. For more than half of the year, much of Northern Canada is snow and ice covered, with some limited moderation by the relatively warmer waters in coastal areas, with temperatures generally remaining below the freezing mark from October to May. During the coldest three months, mean monthly temperatures range from in the southern sections to in the northern sections, although temperatures can go down to Owing to the dry cold air prevalent throughout most of the region, snowfall is often light. During the short summers, much of Northern Canada is snow free, except for the Arctic Cordillera, which remains covered with snow and ice throughout the year. In the summer months, temperatures average below but may occasionally exceed Most of the rainfall accumulated occurs in the summer months, ranging from in the northernmost islands to at the southern end of Baffin Island.

Using the political definition of the three northern territories, the north, with an area of , makes up 39.3% of Canada. Although vast, the entire region is very sparsely populated. As of 2021, only about 118,160 people lived there, compared with 36,991,981 in the rest of Canada. 50.7% in the NWT Second is Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, which contains 20,340 inhabitants. Third is Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, with 7,429.

Although it has not been on the same scale, some towns and cities have experienced population increases not seen for several decades before. Yellowknife has become the centre of diamond production for Canada (which has become one of the top three countries for diamonds). In the 2006 Canadian Census, the three territories posted a combined population of over 100,000 for the first time in Canadian history.