Access to the territorial capital of Iqaluit is difficult and expensive as there are no direct flights from Kitikmeot Region communities to Iqaluit. For example, Iqaluit is approximately 1,069km (664mi) from Kugaaruk, the closest Kitikmeot community. A one-way flight to the capital costs between $3,000 and $4,000 (as of April 2025)[4] and involves flying to, along with an overnight stay in, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, approximately 1,310km (810mi) southwest of Kugaaruk—in total, a trip of about 3,627km (2,254mi).
There are also four registered aerodromes in the region. Cambridge Bay Water Aerodrome is a floatplane base open in the summer only. George Lake Aerodrome, an ice runway is only open from January to April, and serves the Back River Gold Project. Goose Lake Aerodrome also serves the Back River Gold Project and has both ice and gravel runways. Hope Bay Aerodrome serves the Hope Bay mine site and is a gravel runway. The former Doris Lake Aerodrome, was a 7,894ft (2,406m) ice runway, and was the longest in the region, it served the Doris Lake mine.[5]
In 2007 at their AGM, Bobby Lyall, a board member of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association and younger brother of Bill Lyall, suggested the formation of a political party called the Bloc Kitikmeot to run in the next general election and to advocate for a separate Kitikmeot Territory. Bobby Lyall, along with his brother Kitikmeot Corporation president, Charlie Lyall and delegates Martina and Connie Kapolak, argued that the Government of Nunavut had spent most of the infrastructure money available from the federal government in the Baffin Region (Qikiqtaaluk Region).[12] However, the party was not formed and consequently no members ran for a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut which continues to run as a consensus government.
In the 2021 Canadian census conducted by Statistics Canada, the Kitikmeot Region had a population of 6,458 living in 1,677 of its 1,954 total private dwellings, a change of -1.3% from its 2016 population of 6,543. With a land area of 432,108km2 (166,838sqmi), it had a population density of 0.015/km2 (0.039/sqmi) in 2021.[1]
The Kitikmeot Region also doubles as one of three census divisions in Nunavut, the others being the Kivalliq[1] (also known as the Keewatin) and the Qikiqtaaluk[1] (formerly known as the Baffin) regions. Of the three the Kitikmeot is the smallest in size being 2,223.16km2 (858.37sqmi) smaller than the Kivalliq.[1] It has the smallest population and is the least densely populated of the three. The population is predominantly Inuit (89.3%) with 0.5% other Indigenous peoples, 0.2% North American Indian and 0.3% Métis, and 10.2% non-Indigenous.[1]
Notes
↑Climate data was recorded at Coppermine from October 1930 to November 1977 and at Kugluktuk Airport from December 1977 to present.
Bromley, Robert Graham H., and Bruce D. McLean. [ Raptor Surveys in the Kitikmeot and Baffin Regions, Northwest Territories, 1983 and 1984]. Yellowknife, NWT: Dept. of Renewable Resources, Govt. of the Northwest Territories, 1986.
Gunn, A. Polar Bear Denning Surveys in the Kitikmeot Region, 1977–86. Coppermine, NWT: Dept. of Renewable Resources, Govt. of the Northwest Territories, 1991.
Inuit Gallery of Vancouver. Kitikmeot Land of the Spirits. Vancouver: Inuit Gallery of Vancouver, 1991. ISBN0-9693315-6-8
Kassam, K.-A. S. 2002. "Thunder on the Tundra: Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit of the Bathurst Caribou, by Natasha Thorpe, Naikak Hakongak, Sandra Eyegetok, and the Kitikmeot Elders". Arctic. 55: 395.
Kitikmeot Education Resource Centre. Living and Teaching in the Kitikmeot Region. [Cambridge Bay, N.W.T.]: Kitikmeot Education Resource Centre, 1984.
Kitikmeot Inuit Association. Central Arctic Regional Land Claims Proposal for Social, Education Self-Determination. [Cambridge Bay, N.W.T.?]: Kitikmeot Inuit Association, 1979.
Northwest Territories. Economic Facts, Kitikmeot Region. [Yellowknife]: N.W.T. Dept. of Economic Development & Tourism, 1989.
Northwest Territories. Kitikmeot Health Care. [Yellowknife]: Northwest Territories Health, 1982.
Sato, Riki. The Directory of Community Groups, Inuvik and Kitikmeot Regions. Inuvik, N.W.T.: NOGAP Steering Committee, 1988.
Todd, John. North Slave Kitikmeot Mineral Development. Yellowknife, N.W.T.: Govt. of the N.W.T.], 1993.
West Kitikmeot Slave Study Society. West Kitikmeot Slave study. Yellowknife: West Kitikmeot Slave Study Society, 2002.
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