NRCan releases updated map of Canada

Here’s the new map of Canada that Natural Resources Canada released April 16. (IMAGE COURTESY OF NRCAN)

The federal Department of Natural Resources unveiled the latest version of its map of Canada April 16, with a few Inuit language place names scattered on it here and there.

Greg Rickford, the natural resources minister, revealed the map at an event held inside a school in Kenora, Ont.

The updated map shows Canada’s 200-mile offshore economic zone, winter roads in northern Canada, the route of the Trans-Canada Highway, and other roads, railway lines and ferry routes.

“This updated map will help Canadians better understand our evolving country,” Rickford said.

The new representation of the country also contains a few Inuit language place names, most of them in north and central Baffin and in the Inuvialuit region of the Northwest Territories.

Other than the well-known northern village names that have been used in Nunavik since the early1980s, there are no Inuit language place names marked on the Nunavik section of the map.

There are none marked on the Labrador section either.

The community on the Hudson Bay coast of northern Quebec once known as “Great Whale River” is marked as Kuujjuarapik, but the Cree name, Whapmagoostui, is missing. The Nunavik region is not delineated either.

A headland on the southeast corner of Bylot Island is now marked as “Niaqunngut” and a body of water near Pond Inlet is now marked as “Tasiujaq.”

The long inlet behind the community of Clyde River is now marked “Kangiqtuugaapik,” which is also the Roman orthography representation of Clyde River’s Inuit language name.

In the NWT, Prince of Wales Strait, between Banks Island and Victoria Island, is now marked “Ikirahak.”

“By adding the Inuktitut names of places in Canada’s North, we not only recognize the importance of Inuit culture but demonstrate our government’s commitment to celebrating our northern history,” Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq, also Nunavut’s MP, said in a news release.