Development of community wellness indicators in Baker Lake, NU

The Hamlet of Baker Lake, Nunavut has experienced unprecedented development with the construction and opening of Agnico-Eagle’s Meadowbank gold mine, 100km away by all-weather road. As Meadowbank is the first mine to be established in Nunavut since the creation of the territory in 1999, the community of Baker Lake serves as a test case for the rest of the territory. As such, there is considerable interest in tracking conditions in the Hamlet of Baker Lake to ensure that, on balance, the community is becoming more well; indeed, this is a requirement of the Inuit Impact and Benefit Agreement (IIBA) signed by Agnico-Eagle and the Kivalliq Inuit Association in 2011. In light of this requirement, Agnico-Eagle has committed to developing a process to track community wellness over time based upon indicators that are meaningful to the Hamlet’s residents. The first step in such a process is to identify these indicators of wellness, which will be completed by the Mitacs intern.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Ben Bradshaw

Student:

Sophie Maksimowski

Partner:

Agnico Eagle Mines Limited

Discipline:

Geography / Geology / Earth science

Sector:

Environmental industry

University:

University of Guelph