After years of negotiation, the territory of Nunavut was established in Canada’s Eastern and Central Arctic on April 1, 1999. Made in Nunavut provides the first behind-the-scenes account of the planning that led to this remarkable achievement. The authors, leading authorities on the politics of the Canadian Arctic, pay particular attention to the Government of Nunavut’s innovative organizational design – especially the decentralization of offices and functions to communities across the territory. They explain how this new government was designed and implemented, and critically assess whether decentralization has delivered “better” government for Nunavut.

Jack Hicks worked for Inuit organizations for more than thirty years. He is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan.

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Graham White is a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Toronto.

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• Short-listed, Donald Smiley Prize, Canadian Political Science Association

Made in Nunavut is meticulous and beautifully researched. It recounts an experiment in governance in the strangest place on earth, a territory of 1.9 million square kilometres flung across three time zones … Made in Nunavut is the definitive analysis of the nation’s most ambitious trial in home rule.

Blacklocks Reporter

Made in Nunavut fills an important gap. Up to now little has been written about the process through which the new territory was formed, in the period from 1993 to 1999, and on the extent to which the hopes and aspirations for that territory have been realized in the years following its establishment. This is the subject matter of Made in Nunavut, with a particular focus on the decentralization of certain functions of the Nunavut government to various communities across the territory. It is a work well suited to students of political science, public administration, and northern studies, primarily at the university level, but for some at a college level as well: it provides an enormous information base. It is written in a non-technical manner, and in this sense is also suited to the general reader.

Arctic

With stories and details gathered together for the first time, Made in Nunavut … provides a behind-the-scenes view, a critical evaluation and a solid historical account.

Northern News Service