Go North: The Northern Report

"What are you?" asks Drew Williams. "Barbara Walters?"

May 20, 2009

by Rachel Singh

A fair response – the communications manager of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Northwest Territories, has just been asked to personify the North. Still, he’ll play along. “It would be a kid that is full of energy, that is growing into whatever it’s going to be but hasn’t got there quite yet. The whole potential of life lies ahead….Is that corny? If it is,” he adds with a chuckle, “you deserve it.”

Corny or not, it’s true. Even if the N.W.T.’s highest GDP amongst provinces and territories is a product of having Canada’s lowest population density, it still points to the ambition driving and defining the economy here and in Yukon and Nunavut, too. Today the midnight sun shines down on diamonds, oil and gas, tourism and, overall, untapped opportunities Williams believes will benefit the entire country, rectifying the region’s have-not past. For a glimpse of that potential, Alberta Venture brings you its report on business in the unique climate and culture of Canada’s North.

First Contact
Northern aboriginal ventures are bypassing southern investors and going straight to the source – China

Adversity Knocks
A look at how enterprising companies have capitalized on the North’s “opportunities”

Braced for Turbulence
Air North flies high on the business strategy that won against Air Canada

All That Glitters
Can the N.W.T. still create a resident, taxpaying workforce when resource industries like diamonds go from boom to bust?

RELATED REPORTS
Business North of Sixty

May 2009 Contents

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