Canada Past & Present

GEOGRAPHY OF CANADA BACKGROUNDER

Nunavut • Capital: Iqaluit • Formed in 1999, Nunavut is the newest addition to the political map of Canada. • Nunavut’s economy relies on traditional Inuit art, traditional harvesting, tourism, some mining, and a growing fishery industry. • Much of the land in Nunavut is tundra. Tundra is bare, rocky, and treeless. The soil of the tundra is locked in permafrost (perpetually frozen ground), which in Nunavut can extend very deep into the ground. • Baffin Island, the largest island in Canada, is a part of Nunavut. • Alert, Nunavut is the northernmost settlement in Canada. • There are many kinds of plants and animals in Nunavut even though trees are absent. They include dwarf shrubs, grasses, mosses, lichens and about 200 species of flowering plants, that survive in Nunavut’s shallow soil.

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