Tuktuuyaqtuuq (Tuktoyaktuk)

Tuktuuyaqtuuq (Tuktoyaktuk) meaning “place resembling a caribou”, is found amidst a landscape dotted with huge ice-covered hills known as pinguryuaq and situated on the edge of the Beaufort Sea. With a population around 1000, it is a major Inuvialuit community within the Inuvialuit Settlement Region.

Still very much a traditional whaling town, Tuktuuyaqtuuq (Tuktoyaktuk) has prepared itself for the increases in tourism. In the fall of 2017, an all-season highway opened to connect the community to Inuvik and the rest of Canada. In the 1980s the community was the centre of oil and gas activities in the Western Arctic. Today, there are still large reserves of oil and gas both on and offshore near Tuktuuyaqtuuq (Tuktoyaktuk).

Each of the six Inuvialuit communities within the Inuvialuit Final Agreement (IFA) – Aktlarvik (Aklavik), Inuuvik (Inuvik), Paulatuuq (Paulatuk), Ikaahuk (Sachs Harbour), Tuktuuyaqtuuq (Tuktoyaktuk) and Ulukhaktuuq (Ulukhaktok) – has a community corporation with elected directors. Through a democratic process as outlined in the IFA, Inuvialuit beneficiaries directly control IRC and its subsidiaries. The chair of each community corporation, together with the chair of IRC, form the IRC board of directors. Tuktoyaktuk Community Corporation (SCC) board of directors is elected by corporation members.

Chair – Darrell Nasogaluak

Vice-Chair – Tianna Gordon-Ruben

Secretary Treasurer – Iqalualuq

Director – Nellie Cournoyea

Director – Holly Campbell

Director – Jackie Jacobson

Director – Nathan Kuptana