Tuktoyaktuk

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

Still very much a traditional whaling town, Tuktoyaktuk has prepared itself for an expected increase 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 Tuktoyaktuk.

Each of the six Inuvialuit communities within the Inuvialuit Final Agreement (IFA) – Aklavik, Inuvik, Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour, Tuktoyaktuk and 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 – Darrel Nasogaluak

Director – Jackie Jacobson

Director – Iqalualuq

Director – Nellie Cournoyea

Director – Holly Campbell

Director – Tianna Gordon-Ruben