Loading...
This is a vast riding: Val d’Or is a four-hour-and-40-minute drive from Parliament Hill (416km), while the town of Kuujuaq at the northern end of the riding is a six-hour flight from Ottawa International Airport.
The tree line crosses the riding three-quarters of the way to its northern extremity, while the tundra extends south as far as James Bay. The Torngat Mountains along the Labrador border include Canada’s highest peaks east of the Rocky Mountains.
Approximately 38% of the riding’s population identify as Aboriginal, with over 31% of the total population speaking an Indigenous language. Cree and Inuktitut are, combined, spoken by almost 30,000 people.
About 1.5% of the riding’s population are immigrants.
A small population of eastern Europeans (especially Russians, Poles, and Ukrainians) helped settle the northern mining communities at the beginning of the 20th century.
Average individual income is $43,664.
Several Wildlife Reserves (Réserves Fauniques) managed by the Quebec government offer fishing, hunting and camping. The rivers flowing into James, Hudson and Ungava Bays are acclaimed for the thrilling experience they offer canoeists and kayakers. The George, Rupert, and Great Whale are but three of hundreds to choose from.
This riding is immense, at over 800,000 square kilometres. It takes up more than half of the province of Quebec. The population density is one person for every 10 square kilometres.
Every year for the last 50 years, cyclists have come from around the world to race in the Tour cycliste d’Abitibi. with an average of 25 different teams and up to 180 participants in total. The 600-kilometre race is spread over six days and travels to Amos, Val d’Or, Rouyn-Noranda, Malarctic, Lebel-sur-Quévillon, and La Sarre.
Val d’Or is the largest urban centre, largely focused on natural resources: gold, copper, and zinc mining and forestry products. The James Bay Hydro-Electric project meets most of the province’s hydro needs and also exports energy to U.S. customers.
For the past 20 years, Glencore’s Raglan mines near Salluit and Kangiqsujuaq have shipped nickel and copper ore to its smelter in Sudbury, Ont. The company plans to establish another five mines that would allow operations across Nunavik’s nickel belt to continue until at least 2040.
In 2011, the Leaf River caribou herd numbered 430,000. Today that figure has fallen to 199,000. The change in climate, deterioration of habitat, new parasites, and predators are being blamed for the precipitous decline.
In 2014, the Raglan mine near Salluit installed a wind turbine that saved the company 2.1 million litres of diesel fuel in its first year. The company is looking at installing additional wind turbines that would reduce diesel consumption by up to 40%.
The known history of settlement in Nunavik goes back nearly 4,500 years. The Paleo-Eskimo lived along the eastern coast of Hudson Bay for 1,500 years and then mysteriously disappeared. The earliest Thule sites discovered so far in Nunavik date back to 1300 AD. Nunavik later became part of Rupert’s Land, with control in the hands of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Eventually the territory and the Inuit – descendants of the Thule – became part of the Northwest Territories. In 1912, the region was handed over to the Quebec government.
One of Quebec’s oldest working artists, Raoul Duguay, was born in Val d’Or and has extensively chronicled the Abitibi region in his poems, song and political activism on behalf of Quebec sovereignty.
The 18,000 Cree living in this riding are represented by Eeyou Istchee, the Grand Council of the Crees. By formal agreement with the Quebec government, the Cree Nation Government controls all land use, hunting, mining, fishing, education, health, social services and economic development.
The Inuit in neighbouring Nunavik have concluded negotiations with the Quebec and federal governments on the issue of self-government. All 14 communities will be represented in an elected assembly of 21 people.
