Christine Wenman, B.Sc., M.Sc.P. –Ecology North

Planning in Canada’s north is inevitably rooted in a landscape of diversity and change. Such changes are occurring within bio-cultural contexts that are not easily nor appropriately disconnected from one another. While NWT communities are experiencing some of the world’s most dramatic effects of climate change, they are simultaneously developing unique systems of governance at the local, regional and territorial scale.  

Ecology North, a Yellowknife-based non-profit organization has focused substantial work on addressing climate change in NWT over the past several years. The organization’s projects span realms of communication, adaptation and mitigation. Projects have focused on initiatives as specific as managing community hazardous waste and monitoring wastewater and as broad as facilitating governments to adapt a climate change planning lens to all aspects of community planning.

These projects are briefly presented with reflections on the intersections of multiple scales and facets of change and resilience.

Juliana Morar – Landscape Designer, University of Calgary & Alexia Caron-Roy – Landscape Designer, University of Calgary

“When all is said and done, the best guarantee of a long and healthy life may be the connections you have with other people.”
                     John Cacioppo, Neuroscientist, University of Chicago  

With the implementation of the modern living standards, within less than a generation, Arctic settlements fundamentally changed their habitat organization, fragmenting an otherwise traditionally tight-knit community. Given the strong relationship between physical and mental well-being and human interaction and the sudden, drastic spatial gap that the new-found living comfort created within its members, this paper questions the opportunities for public social interaction in small, isolated, Arctic settlements.

Studies showing that loneliness spreads faster than happiness and that society tends to isolate lonely individuals seem to be supported by the statistics showing an increase in mental health problems and suicide rates in arctic settlements. While Architecture focused on ways to improve building performance, a deepening void was left in the realm of public places.  Blamed on the high cost of construction in arctic regions, the only public place is often a building dedicated to multiple uses with strict opening hours. However, a healthy social life is based on free interaction where people interact freely in common space. Unfortunately, multi-use centers limit this type of interaction, leaving less sociable, lonely community members isolated, with literally no place to go. A healthy society cannot function without a common ground, a place to meet, a place that encourages and facilitates human interaction, promotes social equity and tolerance.

It is time that the traditional form of public place be reinterpreted for an innovative, sustainable solution, adapted to the realities of isolated arctic settlements, creating a setting that will once again bring together the members of its society, where they can simply be in the presence of others, for no particular reason.

Tami Hamilton – Natural Resources Coordinator, Carcross/ Tagish First Nation & Patrick James – Co-Chair of Carcross/Tagish First Nation Land Management Board

When Carcross/Tagish First Nation (C/TFN) negotiated their land claim agreements, members of the First Nation where ask to pick 8 ha parcels of land on an individual basis. These parcels have been chosen throughout C/TFN’s Traditional Territory, often based on past family use areas or particular values associated with a site, such as view or proximity to a lake or creek. Some of these sites have been registered as S-Sites, some have been amalgamated into larger C- and R-blocks of Settlement Land.

The result was the creation of a mosaic of land parcels selected throughout C/TFN’s Traditional Territory alongside an expectation that Citizens would have exclusive rights to these selections. Since then, close to 20 years have passed and the demographic landscape of the Yukon and that of First Nations has changed.

As Government of C/TFN is developing its land management legislation, its Citizens have to come to terms with the traditional way of dispersing residential sites throughout their traditional territory being non-sustainable. Thus, Government of C/TFN aims to develop a land management systems and legislation that balances respect for traditional values with the application of land use principles commonly applied in urban environments, i.e., densification of residential areas in terms of parcel size, building footprint and number of dwelling units per building.  As C/TFN aims to protect their land base for generations to come, they set new development standards, such as for the size of parcels, buildings and their location that go beyond current Yukon government land management legislation.