Resolute Bay

ᖃᐅᓱᐃᑦᑐᖅ ou Qausuittuq, « the place with no dawn »

Population : 243

Latitude : 74° 41’ 51’’ N
Longitude : 94° 49’ 56’’ W

Average temperature in August : 0,7 °C
Average temperature in January : -31°C

Tabitha Mullin  – Mayor of Resolute Bay (2012)

«Resolute Bay is situated just at the south end of Cornwallis Island which is just in front of the Northwest passage. There is a lot of history here, travelling around this area we see Thule sites and Dorset sites.

There’s approximatly 160 people in Resolute. There is not too many people moving in. But a lot of our children are growing up, so we require more housing. Most people that do come in are mostly teachers, employees of the Narwal Hotel or the South Camp Inn.

It has changed quite a bit since I grew up. Back then there didn’t seem to be much vegetation, but today there’s a lot more vegetation. Global warming had some effect on it.

During the spring a lot of people go out camping, do their hunting, they’ll be out for a week or two depending on the condition of the ice. The last six years the Northwest passage or Lancaster Sound didn’t freeze over and this year it’s finally frozen over. (…) People are going across to Somerset Island for our hunting of muscox or caribou. We do have some here, but to conserve them, the community along with the Hunter and Trappers organization have agreed not to hunt those animals on this island.

During the winter I work full shifts and on my times off, I still do my hunting for seals for the family and for a couple of dog team owners, that I help feed. There’s still a lot of hunting activities during the winter. And I must say it’s not as dark as it used to be either so there’s a little bit of daylight now. Even on a clear night it can be really beautiful, you can have that moonlight.

In the summer time, now that we have a lot more free ice, there’s a lot more people going out in their boats to other islands as well and to camp. Lately we’ve had really warm summers, actually hitting up to +20° which used to be rare. And in the winter time it gets very cold, it reaches up to -40°, that’s without the wind chill, so imagine that!

In the fall (…) once it starts freezing it’s pretty good. And that’s when we have polar bear problems! They starts coming into town so we’ll have them around for October, November, December. It’s been going for so long fo us it’s natural occurrence now.”

On top of the world

Watch the short film made by talented young people of this community during the video training!

PJ Attagootak and Levi Kautaq went all over Resolute Bay to ask people what they liked most about their hometown. “On top of the World” is an inside look at one of the northernmost communities of Canada through the beauty of its lovely inhabitants.