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Inuvik, (place of man), is a town in the Northwest Territories of Canada and is the administrative centre for the Inuvik Region.
The population as of the 2006 Census was 3,484, but the last two census counts show wide fluctuations due to economic conditions: 2,894 in 2001 and 3,296 in 1996.
History
Inuvik was conceived in 1953 as a replacement administrative centre for the hamlet of Aklavik on the west of the Mackenzie Delta, as the latter was prone to flooding and had no room for expansion. Initially called "New Aklavik", it was renamed to Inuvik (meaning "Place of Man" in Inuvialuktun) in 1958 because of the confusion surrounding the Aklavik/New Aklavik split.
Inuvik achieved village status in 1967 and became a full town in 1970 with an elected mayor and council. In 1979, with the completion of the Dempster Highway, Inuvik became a part of Canada's highway system, and simultaneously the most northerly town to which one could drive in the summer months (an ice road through the Mackenzie River delta connects the town to Tuktoyaktuk, on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, in the winter).
Between 1971 and 1990, the town's economy was supported by the local Canadian Forces Station (a naval station that maintained part of the DEW Line) and by petrochemical companies exploring the Mackenzie Valley and the Beaufort Sea for petroleum. This all collapsed in 1990 for a variety of reasons including disappearing government subsidies, local resistance to petroleum exploration, and low international oil prices.
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