The world is full of things to be ignorant of. As long as one cares enough not to look.

Well they'll just have to adjust their prices.

It seems the cost of living is killing us.

Many people are willing to trade their lives for something to live for.

There is nothing that makes one so unintelligible as making sense.

LOL.

Hats off to you Mr. Wilde.

Many people would hate themselves if only they took the time to get to know them.

You mean the diamond mine near Cambridge Bay, the gold mine at Contwoyto Lake, and the reserves of oil and natural gas throughout the territory?

Yes, I kind of do.

"All they have is mining"

And fishing. And hunting. And tourism.

There was a time when Alaska had nothing but mining, fishing, hunting, and tourism to draw people. It got used, and there is no question of its ownership. There is no reason why Canada can't do the same with Nunavut, unless we kill industry by paying for housing and living costs instead of encouraging the attitude that there is wealth and opportunity to be had if government offers military protection (i.e. CF bases and police) and otherwise gets out of the way.

The only difference is that we don't have to buy it from the Russians first, since we already own it.

"There is no 'industry' to be had…"

Mining, remember? We just agreed that there was mining. It's an industry.

"…and no people to work in it anyway. "

In that case the unemployment rate will drop, and the salaries will skyrocket. This will draw more people. These people will pay for housing, occupy land, and be willing to use their new salaries to pay for services. The demand for services will draw other people looking for high salaries. This is the way our country has always settled territory, as long as government provided protection, rule of law, and otherwise minimal interference.

To the original point, wherever that was, folks like me who want to persuade the government to let the private sector handle such things need the census data to show how ineffective the public sector has been in the past.

So, save the long form!

…and if the government of Nunavut was making that argument, I'd heartily agree.

"Beyond mining….which isn't industry anyway…"
"You obviously have no idea how we've 'always settled territory'."

I was having doubts about engaging in this one from the get-go. Should have gone with my gut after the initial assertion that I had no idea where Nunavut is.

On the upside, you're better informed on the location of Nunavut than on the location of the Carp branch of the Ottawa public library. So keep that chin up!

Beyond mining…which isn't industry anyway, it's a resource economy not manufacturing.

There are many economic illiterates out there. Few are so willing to advertise it.

Where to you suppose manufacturing gets its resources from, to, you know, manufacture stuff? And where do you suppose resource extraction firms get their expensive equipment from, if not from manufacturers? Manufacturing wouldn't exist if not for resource extraction.

That was a reasonable policy back when people were expected to scratch their living from the soil, with no public services to speak of. Nowadays, we're expected to provide healthcare, education, roads, etc. Which makes it kind of important that you don't encourage settlement in areas where there is little economy to support it.

Agreed. It is a tragedy, particularly for our First Nations.

No, they certainly haven't been under the reservation system for thousands of years.

Especially since in Canada it's called the reserve system and it has never been applied in the north, though various other abhorrent aspects of Canadian policy were imposed on the people in the north.

Raging Ranter, don't make parallel comparisons of things you know nothing about

Emily, here's a clue. Reservations were white man's idea.