Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 129 Nova Scotia / Nunavut Command was ratified by unanimous vote during the Command convention in May 2001, 21 years ago, and a Memorandum of Agreement was signed on 7 Dec 2001. On 1 January 2002 the 2 branches of Nunavut; Iqaluit Br 168 (formerly Frobisher Bay Br 4) and Rankin Inlet Br 169 (formerly Keewatin Br 5) officially joined with Nova Scotia Command. But were you aware that on 1 April 2024 the Territory of Nunavut celebrated it’s 25th Anniversary? But how and why did the territory of Nunavut come to be? The creation of Nunavut was the result of over thirty years of hard work on the part of individuals, organizations and government, united by a vision and by their determination to realize a dream. The concept of dividing the Northwest Territories (NWT) dates back to the 1950s when non-aboriginals in the Mackenzie Valley in the western part of the NWT pushed to divide the territory, arguing the move would allow the West to move more rapidly to responsible government. The idea to split the Northwest Territories into two territories was first introduced as a bill in the federal House of Commons in 1963. The bill was, at this time, however, cancelled after the first reading. In 1971, the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (ITC) was formed with the responsibility to pursue and negotiate a land claims agreement with the federal government for the Inuit of Northern Canada. In 1973, ITC began a study of Inuit land use and occupancy, which formed the geographic basis for the new territory. Three years later, ITC formally proposed the creation of a Nunavut Territory. The argument for creating two new territories in Canada's North centered around the desire of people in Nunavut to have their own government, one that is closer to the people and more culturally-based, including the use of Inuktitut as the working language of the new government. In 1982, the Tungavik Federation of Nunavut (TFN) was incorporated to pursue land claims negotiations on behalf of the Inuit of Nunavut, taking the mandate from the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada. In a boundary plebiscite, 56% of voters in the Northwest Territories voted in favour of creating Nunavut on 14 April 1982 and in November of that year, the Canadian government announced that Nunavut would be created. On 14 May 1992, the majority of N.W.T. residents voted in favour of the proposed boundary between Nunavut and the Western Arctic. The Nunavut – 25th Anniversary continued ...
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