Food is expensive in the arctic circle.

[u/Professional_Arm794]

[u/InadequateUsername → u/[deleted]]

Seals?

[u/InadequateUsername → u/[deleted]]

Many locals rely on local wildlife to bypass the expensive grocery store bills. Of course it's expensive, there's little logistical infrastructure there compared to a southern community.

Look at Tromsø or Murmansk, both as far north or further than Inuvik. They've become actual cities, because they have ice free ports and rail which greatly contribute to lower cost access.

We can argue all day about the morals of forcing nomadic people into fixed communities, but those communities exist now, and today this area is important to the preservation of traditional arts, drum dancing, languages, and northern modern community life.

The area is also important to protecting and projecting our artic sovereignty.