The Northern Region

The northern region takes up a large part of Canada. It covers most of the Northwest Territories,

Nunavut and parts of the Yukon, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec. It covers 40 % of Canada’s land

surface. This region has a variety of geography including lowlands, mountains, plateaus and areas

covered with permafrost and tundra. The climate is always cold and dry and there is ice on the top of

the water year-round. There is about 180 mm of precipitation yearly. Over 20 First Nations and 30000

Inuit live in the northern region. Europeans came to trade fur in the 1700’s, to search for the

Northwest Passage in the 1800’s and mined for gold in the Yukon in the 1890’s. Fishing used to be the

main source of economy, but now there are new commercial industries and better clothing, housing

and transportation. Since the discovery of zinc, iron ore, lead, diamonds and natural gas deposits in

1945 mining has become a huge industry.