Iqaluit named Nunavut’s ‘most active community’ again
Non-profit ParticipAction awards city $15,000 for local physical activity and sport initiatives
Participants hit the road during the Iqaluit Run in August 2024. ParticipAction has again named Iqaluit as Nunavut’s most active community. (File photo by Corey Larocque)
Iqaluit is once again Nunavut’s “most active community,” according ParticipAction, a national charity that promotes physical activity.
It awarded the city $15,000 to support local physical activity and sports initiatives, a news release from the organization said Tuesday.
In its own news release, the City of Iqaluit said the prize money will be used “to enhance community-based physical activity initiatives and opportunities for residents.”
One city or town from each of the 13 territories and provinces received a prize as part of ParticipAction’s Community Challenge initiative, which ran throughout June. Richmond, B.C., was named “Canada’s most active community,” earning a $100,000 prize.
ParticipAction recognized Iqaluit for providing free pool passes to people and families facing financial difficulties and for implementing pool times specifically for elders and individuals requiring physical rehabilitation to engage in physical activity in a safe space.
“The community also offered fitness classes tailored to individuals with special needs, providing a welcoming, supportive environment where residents can stay active and enjoy the benefits of regular exercise,” the ParticipAction news release said.
ParticipAction previously named Iqaluit as Nunavut’s most active community in 2023 and 2024.
Why don’t they award a smaller less active community to encourage that community to get more active?
Iqaluit has two skating rinks, a in-door swimming pool curling rink, cadet hall and more. They have all the facilities. While some communities do not even have functioning community hall or skating rink.
The gap between the have nots and the have is just growing and this is just wrong
First the city is been compared to communities
Like for real
A huge congratulations for our capital! There are many great volunteers that work their butts off to set up all the different activities and events that go on in our beautiful city.
They do such a tremendous job! Thank you!
For those that try to crap on our capital for doing good why don’t you stop with your complaining and get out there and volunteer, your tiny community needs it, stop waiting for someone to come to your community to do it for you, that’s not going to happen, you have to make it happen for yourself.
Find out about all the grants and contributions that are out there to set up different activities, sport Nunavut, GN, Feds, nonprofit organizations, private sector, your recreation coordinator can help, that’s why they are there not just for hockey but for all kinds of other activities.
Your little communities can’t all have swimming pools or two arena’s but you have other things that fits for your communities population, it’s just not economically viable for a small community to have the same things as larger cities.
But don’t let that stop you from setting up other activities that can work in your community. Enough of complaining and get started with your own events.
I said it last year and I’ll say it again this year.
There’s absolutely no way that Iqaluit is Nunavut’s most active community. Most active in paying for gym memberships or going to Nunavut’s only swimming pool? Yeah, positively. Most active in boasting online and posting pictures from that time they went outside? Yeah, likely. Most active in recreational exercise? Probably, sure.
But actually most active overall? Not a chance. You’ve got communities of people who have significant portions of the population living most of their life outside. The narwhal hunters of Pond, the walrus hunters of Sanirajak, the fishermen of Kugaaruk, and so on. There are so many people in the smaller communities of Nunavut that are still living very active, very outdoor subsistence lifestyles that I’m sure do not get captured in this Participaction challenge. Hell, I didn’t even know this was going on until it was over.
But sure, Iqaluit. Take your $15,000. I’m sure you feel like it’s deserved.
Waaaaa waaaaaa waaaaaa! That’s all we hear in your post, poor me, we do it better but never win, sorry to burst your bubble but there is way lot more that happens in our capital that you seem to not know about, just concentrating on the negative, keep on hating but you really have to look in the mirror to see who is the blame here.
Well deserved! There is all kinds of things to do from little kids to adults. Don’t like it? Will start some things in your community cause all we hear from your post is waaaa waaaaa waaaaaa waaaaaa lol, enough with the complaining and get volunteering, you don’t want to sound like this guy ^
“Look in the mirror”
“There is all kinds of things to do from little kids to adults”
“start some things in your community”
“get volunteering”
“maybe one of the other 24 communities should actually apply next year”
I know what goes on in Iqaluit, but the ignorance of what it’s like in a community that’s not the capital is obvious.
Iqaluit has far more resources than any other community. That provides economies of scale. It has what, 50 municipal administrative staff? Easier just to be on the lookout for funding opportunities like this compared to smaller hamlets that have about 10 staff.
It also means that there are more recreational opportunities, the pool being the main one listed by ParticiPaction. No amount of volunteering or grant-seeking (again, a privilege afforded by having more municipal staff) will bring a pool to a small community. Two arenas, indoor sports field, curling rink, racquetball club, baseball diamond, all supported by having significantly larger populations, transient/locum employees, and access to capital.
The population also benefits from much higher levels of personal discretionary budgets, with the unemployment of Iqaluit at 7.1% compared to unemployment rates like 22.6% in Arctic Bay, 26.0% in Qikiqtarjuaq, 31.0% in Naujaat, or 39.7% in Taloyoak. There are few employment opportunities in small non-decentralized communities, and fewer still that pay well.
The “active” participants in Iqaluit are those that mostly sit on their rears all day at a desk and then boast about their hour in the gym, or their hour of cross-country skiing, or their baseball game. Many people in these small communities will spend the entirety of many days outside, setting nets in a river or under the ice, boating to hunt marine animals, traveling large distances to hunt caribou or muskox, or to pick eggs.
These are Nunavut’s most active people, but these activities don’t fit into the guide of ParticiPaction’s criteria. 65% of the ranking criteria are determined by:
– TOTAL number of activities (advantage to larger communities)
– TOTAL number of participants (advantage to larger communities)
– TOTAL number of unique organizations who tracked at least one participant (advantage to larger communities)
It’s just another game of the rich get richer that we’re all too used to.
Let’s be clear: the ParticiPACTION Community Challenge is designed so smaller communities can win. In fact, almost half the scoring (45%) is per capita—like participants and organizations per person—while the rest is total numbers. That gives small towns a real edge when they organize participation strategically.
Over the years, some of the top national winners have been small communities:
Enderby, B.C. (pop ~3,000) won the inaugural challenge in 2019 by tracking nearly 2 million active minutes with creative events like foam fests and flash mobs.
Hay River, N.W.T. (pop ~3,600) won in 2024, demonstrating how a community of under 4,000 can outperform much larger groups through active local involvement.
In Nunavut, there are many recreation departments doing outstanding work—some simply didn’t apply or fully track their activities this year. That doesn’t diminish their efforts, nor does it justify tearing down those who did.
Iqaluit did put in the work this year—but smaller communities absolutely can win next time. Let’s stop tearing each other down and instead lift each other up, learning from what works and encouraging every community to apply and track.
Sooooooooo, maybe one of the other 24 communities should actually apply next year??? Hard for Iqaluit not to win the 15k award if they are the only community that applies, I guess everybody else was tooooo busy complaining that Iqaluit has everything and couldn’t take the time to actually apply.
According to CBC Radio, Iqaluit was the only one to apply to participate in Participaction…… so kind of like how NN is the only one to apply to participate in Media Awards for Nunavut….. If you are the only one to apply, your odds of winning are near certain!
Iqaluit proving once again that they are the center of the universe. They can’t even fund raise themselves to go for out of region tournaments.
The irony in saying these smaller communities don’t volunteer or fund raise is hilarious. The city of deceit.
I find it hilarious the people that craw out to complain about the capital winning a ParticipAction award, anything positive for our capital some really like to crap on for what?
Because they can’t bother to apply themselves in their own community?
Don’t want to bother volunteering to make their own community better?
It’s ridiculous how some people constantly look for negativity, it must be so tiring to be that way it’s not wonder you have no time to volunteer.