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Arctic Survey Part VII. Administration of the Canadian Northland*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2014
Extract
The Canadian Northland embraces both the Yukon and the North West Territories, a total area of 1,516,758 square miles. The Yukon Territory, which forms the extreme north-west portion of the mainland of Canada, extends northward from British Columbia to the Arctic Ocean and eastward from Alaska to the District of Mackenzie. The North West Territories, which have diminished in area time and again during the last seventy-five years, today embrace the vast mainland portion of Canada lying north of the sixtieth parallel of latitude between the Yukon Territory on the west and Hudson Bay on the east, together with the islands in Hudson and James Bays and in the Arctic Archipelago.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , February 1946 , pp. 45 - 74
- Copyright
- Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1946
Footnotes
*
Parts of this Survey were published in each of the four 1945 numbers of this Journal. Parts i and ii in February, iii and iv in May, v in August, and vi in November.
References
1 Statutes of Canada, 32-3 Vict., c. 3 (1869). Rupert's Land included, according to the Hudson's Bay Company's claim based on the Charter of 1670, the whole watershed of Hudson Bay and Strait. The North-Western Territory, after the extension of British Columbia's boundary to its present limits in 1866, comprised the region between Rupert's Land, British Columbia, and Alaska. The Canadian government, it may be added, claimed the territory in the basin of the Saskatchewan and Red Rivers on the grounds of early French activity, although the Hudson's Bay Company always held it to be a part of Rupert's Land embracing the Hudson Bay watershed.
2 Order of Her Majesty in Council admitting Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory into the Union, June 23, 1870; Johnson, V. K., “Canada's Title to the Arctic Islands” (Canadian Historical Review, vol. XIV, 1933).Google Scholar
3 Statutes of Canada, 38 Vict., c. 49 (1875).
4 The District of Keewatin was created in 1876 and withdrawn from the government of the North West Territories on that date.
5 Statutes of Canada, 51 Vict., c. 19 (1888); 54-5 Vict., c. 22 (1891); 60-1 Vict, c. 28, s. 8 (1896-7).
6 See Lingard, C. C., Territorial Government in Canada (Toronto, now in the press).Google Scholar Chapter I presents an outline of the political development of the North West Territories from 1875 to 1900.
7 Ibid.
8 See Statutes of Canada, 4-5 Edw. VII., cc. 3 and 42, for the Alberta and Saskatchewan Acts of 1905.
9 Statutes of Canada, 4-5 Edw. VII, c. 27, s. 3 (1905).
10 Revised Statutes of Canada, 1906, c. 50; Statutes of Canada, 61 Vict., c. 6, s. 2 (1898), cited as the Yukon Territory Act.
11 Statutes of Canada, 2 Geo. V, cc. 45, 42, and 32 (1912).
12 Journals, Legislative Assembly, Northwest Territories, Session 1898, p. 8 Google Scholar; “Minutes of Meetings of the Executive Council of the Territories,” 1897-8, orders-in-council nos. 83, 90, 94, and 95 (dated January 11, 1898); Department of the Interior, The Yukon, its History and Resources (Ottawa, 1916), p. 14.Google Scholar
13 Statutes of Canada, 61 Vict., c. 6 (1898); Debates of the House of Commons, 1898, vol. II, cols. 6728-31.Google Scholar
14 Statutes of Canada, 62-3 Vict., c. 11 (1899); Debates, House of Commons, 1898, vol. II, col. 6729.Google Scholar The sections of the Act of 1899 respecting the two elected representatives did not go into effect until July 13, 1900, when an order-in-council to that effect was issued by the federal government. The membership of the appointed Yukon Council during the years 1898-1900 comprised the Superintendent of the N.W.M.P., the Judge of the Territorial Court, the registrar of lands, the legal adviser, and the gold commissioner, all of whom served without salaries, being already government employees in other capacities in the Territory. Mr. William Ogilvie was Commissioner of Yukon Territory at this time.
15 Debates, House of Commons, 1900, cols. 7773 and 7780.
16 Ibid., 1900, cols. 6615 and 7778-9.
17 Ibid., 1900, cols. 7780-5; 1902, vol. II, col. 3306; Statutes of Canada, 2 Edw. VII, c. 37 (1902). Numerous sections of the Act detailed the method of carrying on elections in a sparsely settled pioneer community. The qualifications of voters were set out in the same terms as in the Northwest Territories Representation Act.
18 Hopkins, J. Castell, The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, 1902, pp. 88–9.Google Scholar
19 Statutes of Canada, 2 Edw. VII, c. 34 (1902). Dr. Alfred Thompson, the Reverend John Pringle, and Messrs. J. A. Clarke, Max Laudreville, and Robert Low were elected to the Yukon Council on January 18, 1903.
20 Debates, House of Commons, 1902, vol. II, cols. 3126, 3834, 4485, and 4533.Google Scholar
21 Hopkins, J. Castell, The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, 1904, p. 352 Google Scholar; Debates, House of Commons, 1905, vol. IV, col. 7060.Google Scholar
22 Debates, House of Commons, 1906, vol. IV, col. 6547.Google Scholar
23 Ibid., 1906, vol. IV, cols. 5103-7.
24 Ibid., cols. 5110-11.
25 Ibid., cols. 5113-15.
26 Hopkins, J. Castell, The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, 1907, p. 615.Google Scholar The other five members of the Council were still appointed by the federal government.
27 Debates, House of Commons, 1907–1908, vol. VI, cols. 10529-41.Google Scholar
28 The population of the Yukon Territory had declined from 27,219 in 1901 to 8,512 in 1911(of which 1,528 were Indians), and 4,157 in 1921. The census of 1931 gave the population at 4,230 (including 2,730 white inhabitants) and that of 1941 a total population of 4,914. Cited in Hopkins, J. Castell, The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, 1911, p. 11 Google Scholar; Debates, House of Commons, 1911, vol. I, p. 593 Google Scholar; ibid., 1922, vol. III, pp. 2456-7; ibid., 1937, vol. II, p. 1440; Report of the Department of Mines and Resources, 1943, p. 91.Google Scholar
29 Statutes of Canada, 8-9 Geo. V, c. 50 (1918); Debates, House of Commons, 1918, vols. I and II, pp. 464, 682, and 2221.Google Scholar The duties of the offices abolished were delegated to the Gold Commissioner, George P. Mackenzie, with an annual saving of $150,000 in the cost of administration ( Hopkins, J. Castell, The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, 1918, p. 748).Google Scholar
30 Statutes of Canada, 9-10 Geo. V, c. 9 (1919); Debates, House of Commons, 1919, vol. I, pp. 5, 592–4.Google Scholar
31 Debates, House of Commons, 1923, vol. IV, pp. 3943–4.Google Scholar
32 Revised Statutes of Canada, 1927, vol. IV, c. 215Google Scholar; Department of Mines and Resources, The Yukon Territory (Ottawa, 1944), p. 5.Google Scholar The present Controller is Mr. G. A. Jeckell; the three elected members of the Yukon Council are John R. Fraser, Ernest J. Corp, and Alexander A. Smith, representing the electoral Districts of Dawson, Mayo, and Whitehorse, respectively. The present Member of Parliament for the Yukon is the Honourable George Black, K.C.
33 Consolidated Ordinances of the Yukon Territory, 1914, passim; Ordinances of the Yukon Territory, 1942, 1943, 1944; Annual Report of the Department of the Interior, 1936, pp. 37–8Google Scholar; Report of the Department of Mines and Resources, 1939, p. 82; ibid., 1941, p. 72; ibid., 1943, p. 72.
34 See Professor H. W. Hewetson's study on transportation in the Northland, being Part iv of this Survey and published in this Journal, May, 1945. Mr. J. H. McNeill of Dawson is the present superintendent of roads. In 1939 and 1943, for example, expenditures on maintenance and repair of roads out of Territorial funds totalled $53,378 and $43,587 respectively (Report of the Department of Mines and Resources, 1939, p. 85 and ibid., 1943, p. 74).
35 See, for example, Consolidated Ordinances of the Yukon Territory, 1914, c. 40.
36 Revised Statutes of Canada, 1927, c. 215, s. 28.
37 Consolidated Ordinances of the Yukon Territory, 1914, c. 79.
38 Department of Mines and Resources, The Yukon Territory, pp. 25–7.Google Scholar
39 Prior to December 1, 1936, the Department of the Interior had charge of the general administration of the Yukon. On that date, the Department of Mines and Resources came into being under authority of the Statutes of Canada, 1936, c. 33. The new Department assumed work of the former federal Departments of Mines, Interior, Indian Affairs, and Immigration. Its Lands, Parks, and Forests Branch, under R. A. Gibson as Director, is subdivided into four bureaus including the Bureau of Northwest Territories and Yukon Affairs.
40 Department of Mines and Resources, The Yukon Territory, 1944, p. 5.Google Scholar
41 Statutes of Canada, 61 Vict. (1898), vol. I, p. xxxix.Google Scholar
42 Hopkins, J. Castell, The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, 1905, pp. 396–8.Google Scholar
43 Debates, House of Commons, 1941–1942, vol. IV, pp. 3395–6Google Scholar, George Black, Yukon M.P., giving a survey of mining laws. See Department of Mines and Resources, The Yukon Territory, 1944, pp. 29–32 Google Scholar, for a synopsis of the placer and quartz mining laws and regulations.
44 See Arctic Survey, Part iv.
45 Department of Mines and Resources, The Yukon Territory, 1944, pp. 33–4Google Scholar; Statutes of Canada, 4 Geo. VI, c. 45 (1940). Lands in the Territory are disposed of by sale, lease, or homestead entry under regulations approved by order-in-council. See the Northland reports on settlement by Professors Griffith Taylor and C. A. Dawson in Parts iii, v, and vi of this Survey.
46 Statutes of Canada, 61 Vict., c. 6, ss. 10-21 (1898); ibid., 62-3 Vict., c. 11 (1899); ibid., 2 Edw. VII, c. 35 (1902); ibid., 2 Geo. V, c. 56 (1912).
47 Statutes of Canada, 1 Edw. VII, c. 41 (1901); ibid., 3-4 Geo. V, c. 13 (1913); ibid., 4-5 Geo. VI, c. 30 (1940-1); Revised Statutes of Canada, 1927, c. 215, ss. 78, 81-3, 105, and 121.
48 Debates, House of Commons, 1900, col. 592; ibid., 1912-3, vol. IV, cols. 6474-9; ibid., 1941-2, vol. IV, p. 3399.
49 The above tables and statistics are drawn from the annual Appropriation Acts in Statutes of Canada, 18-19 Geo. V, c. 54; ibid., 23-4 Geo. V, c. 55; ibid., 24-5 Geo. V, c. 23; ibid., 25-6 Geo. V, c. 49; ibid., 1 Edw. VIII, c. 50; ibid., 1 Geo. VI, c. 45; ibid., 2 Geo. VI, c. 54; ibid., 7-8 Geo. VI, c. 33; Debates, House of Commons, 1909, vol. IV, pp. 6272–3Google Scholar; ibid., 1915, vol. II, pp. 1580-4; ibid., 1917, vol. II, pp. 1736-7; ibid., First Session, 1919, vol. V, pp. 4045-6: ibid., 1922, vol. II, p. 1034; ibid., 1936, vol. Ill, p. 2782 and vol. IV, p. 3252; ibid., 1937, vol. II, p. 1440; ibid., 1941-2, vol. IV, p. 3397; ibid., 1937, vol. II, pp. 1725-6, Mrs. Martha Black, Member for the Yukon; Report of the Department of Mines and Resources, 1938, p. 73 Google Scholar; ibid., 1939, p. 82; ibid., 1940, p. 71; ibid., 1941, p. 72; ibid., 1943, p. 72. During the four years up to 1900—the heyday of Yukon mining operations—revenues totalled $4,376,673 and expenditures $3,679,290, Morang's, Annual Register of Canadian Affairs, 1901, p. 212.Google Scholar
50 Hopkins, J. Castell The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, 1903, pp. 233–9Google Scholar; ibid., 1904, pp. 171 and 352; ibid., 1905, pp. 397-400; ibid., 1907, p. 615; Debates, House of Commons, 1900, col. 6359; ibid., 1926, vol. II, pp. 1390-3.
51 Debates, House of Commons, 1938, vol. III, p. 3083 Google Scholar; ibid., 1941-2, vol. IV, p. 3399. From 1921 to the present Mr. George Black has represented the Territory in Parliament, except 1935-40 when his wife was Member for the Yukon. Mr. Black also served several terms as a member of the Yukon Council after which he was appointed Commissioner in 1912.
52 Statutes of Canada, 4-5 Edw. VII, c. 27 (1905); ibid, 11-12 Geo. V, c. 40 (1921); Revised Statutes of Canada, 1906, c. 62, s. 8; ibid., 1927, c. 142.
53 Department of the Interior, The North West Territories, 1930, p. 25 Google Scholar; Debates, House of Commons, 1917, vol. II, p. 1736.Google Scholar Mr. W. W. Cory, Deputy Minister of the Department of the Interior, succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel White as Commissioner in 1920. Assisting Mr. Cory as members of the Council were Messrs. Gibson, , Greenway, , Camsell, , and Perry, Colonel, Debates, House of Commons, 1921, vol. V, p. 4113.Google Scholar
54 Department of Mines and Resources, The Northwest Territories, 1944, p. 3 Google Scholar; interview of Deputy-Commissioner of the North West Territories, R. A. Gibson, November, 1944. Mr. D. F. Kellner, M.P. for Edmonton East, presented a petition to the House of Commons signed by a number of residents in the Territories in 1923, asking for parliamentary representation, Debates, House of Commons, 1924, vol. III, p. 2994.Google Scholar
55 In 1930, for example, the legislative body consisted of the Commissioner, W. W. Cory, Deputy Minister of the then Department of the Interior; Deputy Commissioner R. A. Gibson, Assistant Deputy Minister of the Department of the Interior; Dr. Charles Camsell, Deputy Minister, Department of Mines; O. S. Finnie, Director, North West Territories and Yukon Branch, Department of the Interior; H. H. Rowatt, Dominion Lands Board, Department of the Interior; Dr. D. C. Scott, Deputy Superintendent General, Department of Indian Affairs; Colonel C. Starnes, Commissioner of the R.C.M.P.; and D. L. McKeand, Secretary. In 1944 the Council was composed as follows: Commissioner Dr. Charles Camsell; Deputy Commissioner, R. A. Gibson; members of Council—A. L. Cumming, K. R. Daly, H. L. Keenleyside, H. W. McGill, S. T. Wood, and the Secretary, D. L. McKeand. Debates, House of Commons, 1930, vol. I, p. 742 Google Scholar; Department of Mines and Resources, The Northwest Territories, 1944, p. 5.Google Scholar
56 Ordinances of the Northwest Territories, 1905-30, passim. When applicable, the ordinances of the old North West Territories, found in The General Ordinances of the North West Territories in Force September 1, 1905 (Regina, 1907)Google Scholar, are in force in the present Territories unless repealed or amended by the Territorial Council.
57 “Ordinances of Northwest Territories,” 1930-43 (mimeographed).
58 Ibid., assented to, August 27, 1941.
59 Annual Report of the Department of the Interior, 1936, p. 31 Google Scholar; Report of the Department of Mines and Resources, 1939, p. 70 Google Scholar; ibid., 1941, p. 64; ibid., 1943, pp. 62-3.
60 Department of Mines and Resources, The Northwest Territories, 1944, p. 5 Google Scholar; Report of the Department of Mines and Resources, 1939, p. 70 Google Scholar; ibid., 1943, p. 63. The Director of the Lands, Parks, and Forests Branch is Mr. R. A. Gibson. Mr. Wm. Cory is Public Administrator for the remainder of the Territories, at Ottawa.
61 Statutes of Canada, 4-5 Edw. VII, c. 27, ss. 8-9 (1905); ibid., 7-8 Edw. VII, c. 49, s. 2 (1908); ibid., 4 Geo. VI, c. 36, s. 1 (1940).
62 Department of Mines and Resources, An Outline of the Canadian Eastern Arctic, 1944, p. 34 Google Scholar; Report of the Department of Mines and Resources, 1943, p. 64 Google Scholar; Royal Canadian Mounted Police Quarterly (04, 1945, p. 274).Google Scholar
63 Department of Mines and Resources, The Northwest Territories, 1944, pp. 20–1Google Scholar; Statutes of Canada, 17 Geo. V, c. 64, ss. 1-2 (1927). During the year ending June 30, 1943, the North West Territories harvested furs valued at $3,165,107.
64 Department of Mines and Resources, The Northwest Territories, 1944, pp. 31–7Google Scholar; Report of the Department of Mines and Resources, 1939, pp. 78 ff.Google Scholar Copies of all mining regulations may be obtained from the Mining Recorders at Fort Smith and Yeliowknife or from the Bureau of Northwest Territories and Yukon Affairs of the above Department, Ottawa.
65 Department of Mines and Resources, The Northwest Territories, 1944, pp. 51 and 44.Google Scholar See studies on settlement by Professors Griffith Taylor and C. A. Dawson, in Parts iii, v, and vi of this Survey.
66 As Dr. Andrew Moore and Dr. G. F. Wherrett have made detailed studies of education and health services in the North West Territories (Parts I and II of this Survey), the present writer has concerned himself here with merely pointing out the administrative responsibilities of the federal government officials.
67 Department of Mines and Resources, The Northwest Territories, 1944, pp. 6–7 Google Scholar; Report of the Department of Mines and Resources, 1939, p. 71.Google Scholar Payments to hospitals in 1939 totalled $23,042.50, representing 9,217 days treatment. See Department of the Interior, Canada's Eastern Arctic, 1934, pp. 55–8Google Scholar, for a brief survey of missions, schools, hospitals, and relief of destitution in the vast Arctic region among four-fifths of Canada's Eskimos and a few hundred white residents.
68 Department of Mines and Resources, The Northwest Territories, 1944, p. 7 Google Scholar; Report of the Department of Mines and Resources, 1943, p. 64 Google Scholar; ibid., 1941, p. 65; ibid., 1939, p. 71; Debates, House of Commons, 1906, vol. III, p. 5880 Google Scholar; ibid., 1929 vol. III, p. 3641.
69 Department of Mines and Resources, The Northwest Territories, 1944, pp. 22–3Google Scholar; Debates, House of Commons, 1938, vol. III, p. 3075.Google Scholar
70 Department of Mines and Resources, The Northwest Territories, 1944, p. 9 Google Scholar, and An Outline of the Canadian Eastern Arctic, 1944, p. 34 Google Scholar; Report of the Department of Mines and Resources, 1939, p. 70 Google Scholar; ibid., 1943, p. 70; Debates, House of Commons, 1941–1942, vol. IV, p. 3399 Google Scholar; Department of the Interior, Canada's Western Arctic, 1931, pp. 11 and 53 Google Scholar, and Canada's Eastern Arctic, 1954, pp. 39–41 Google Scholar; Royal Canadian Mounted Police Quarterly (04, 1945, p. 273–4).Google Scholar Two remarkable voyages were recently made by the R.C.M.P. patrol vessel St. Roch while carrying out its duties in Arctic waters; during 1940-2 it traversed the legendary North-West Passage from west to east, and in 1944 completed the historic east-to-west passage in a single season.
71 Report of the Department of Mines and Resources, 1939, pp. 71–2, 80–1Google Scholar; ibid., 1943, pp. 71-3; Debates, House of Commons, 1938, vol. III, p. 2884.Google Scholar See H. W. Hewetson's study on transportation in the Territories, Part iv of this Survey; also the concluding section of this paper.
72 Report of the Department of Mines and Resources, 1943, pp. 69–70 Google Scholar; see “Ordinances of the Northwest Territories,” 1939 and 1940 (mimeographed), for the provisions of the Local Administrative District Ordinance
73 Debates, House of Commons, 1931, vol. III, p. 3358 Google Scholar; ibid., 1932, vol. II, pp. 1724-5; ibid., 1936, vol. IV, p. 3231; ibid., 1937, vol. III, p. 2884; ibid., 1939, vol. IV, p. 4644; ibid., 1941-2, vol. IV, p. 3399; ibid., 1928, vol. III, p. 3637. See also items in the annual Appropriation Acts, published in the Statutes of Canada for various years.
74 Report of the Department of Mines and Resources, 1938, 1939, 1940, and 1941, at pp. 8–10.Google Scholar Mr. R. A. Gibson, Director of the Lands, Parks, and Forests Branch of the Department of Mines and Resources informed the writer that it is almost impossible to compile reliable statistical information on revenues and expenditures in the Territories because of the destruction of many old records and the changes made in the way these records were kept from time to time.
75 Report of the Department of Mines and Resources, 1943, pp. 67, 72–3Google Scholar; Department of Mines and Resources, The Northwest Territories, 1944, pp. 8–9 and 35–6Google Scholar; Debates, House of Commons, 05 5, 1944, pp. 2721–5.Google Scholar
76 Department of Mines and Resources, The Northwest Territories, 1944, p. 23.Google Scholar
77 Debates, House of Commons, 1905, vol. IV, cols. 7068-9.Google Scholar
78 Ibid., cols. 7061 and 7080.
79 Debates, House of Commons, 1920, vol. IV, p. 3282.Google Scholar
80 Debates, House of Commons, 1924, vol. II, pp. 1107–8.Google Scholar
81 Debates, House of Commons, 1938, vol. III, pp. 3074 and 3081–3.Google Scholar
82 Ibid., pp. 3074-5.
83 See Kizer, Benjamin H., The U.S.-Canadian Northwest (Princeton and Toronto, 1943)Google Scholar for an admirable study of the possibilities of post-war collaboration in our North Pacific region. Also, Lingard, C. C., “Canada's Stake in the War and the Peace” (Pacific Affairs, 06, 1944), especially pp. 162–5.Google Scholar
84 Debates, House of Commons, 1944, p. 4747.Google Scholar According to a press despatch from Edmonton, Alberta, dated July 8, 1944, mentioned in the House of Commons on July 10, 1944, the then Vice-President Henry Wallace advocated, in an interview in that city, an international conference of Russia,the United States, and Canada to deal with Arctic affairs. Prime Minister Mackenzie King stated that “the suggestion deserves consideration.”