Nunavut Land Claims Agreement

The Nunavut Land Claims Agreement (NCLA, French: L'Accord sur les revendications territoriales du Nunavut) was signed on May 25, 1993, in Iqaluit, by representatives of the Tunngavik Federation of Nunavut (now Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated), the Government of Canada and the Government of the Northwest Territories. This agreement gave the Inuit of the central and eastern Northwest Territories a separate territory called Nunavut. It is the largest Aboriginal land claim settlement in Canadian history.^[1]

The NLCA consists of 42 chapters, which address a broad range of political and environmental rights and concerns including wildlife management and harvesting rights, land, water and environmental management regimes, parks and conservation areas, heritage resources, public sector employment and contracting, and a range of other issues.^[2] The agreement defines two geographic areas covered by the agreement: the first consists of the Arctic islands and the mainland eastern Arctic, and their adjacent marine areas; the second includes the Belcher Islands, and associated islands and adjacent marine areas.^[2]