Iqaluit
Photo: Chelsea Britton
Overview
The capital of Nunavut and located on southeastern Baffin Island, Iqaluit is the territory’s largest community with a population of about 7,429 people (2021 census).
Iqaluit is in the Eastern time zone along with most of Quebec and Ontario. The city can be reached from southern Canada via a 3-hour and 10-minute flight from Ottawa.
Photo: Chelsea Britton
Highlights
The landing strip at Iqaluit airport is long enough to land a space shuttle, so it is often used for cold weather testing of the world’s largest new aircraft.
Photo: Chelsea Britton
The city is the home of many Inuit artists, filmmakers and musicians. There are several annual arts and culture festivals. The Toonik Tyme Festival is held every April. It is a weeklong event that includes traditional Inuit games and activities such as igloo building, dogsled races, snowmobile races, seal skinning contests, musical performances and feasts.
Alianait Arts Festival is a popular summertime cultural event in Iqaluit, taking place in late June to early July, that features performing and visual artists from Nunavut and around the world for several days of music, theatre, film, circus acts and storytelling.
Weather and landscape
Photo: Chelsea Britton
Iqaluit sits near the 64th parallel and has a polar climate. In late December the community sees under 4.5 hours of sunlight in a day. May through August, Iqaluit days are long and sunny, averaging 16 hours of daylight and reaching close to 20 hours in late June.
Winter temperatures of -10°C to -32°C are common in Iqaluit, while in the summer, temperatures range from 5°C to 25°C.
Located on the northern end of Frobisher Bay, Iqaluit is situated on gently rolling hills, with rocky outcrops and tundra valleys. The tides of Frobisher Bay at Iqaluit rise and fall eight to twelve metres (26-39 feet) twice a day — the second highest tides in Canada after the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia.