Which industries are important to the economy of the North?
- Automobile manufacturing
- Mining, oil and gas
- Wheat farming and cattle ranching
- Wine making and fruit growing
Answer: Mining, oil and gas
The North has mines for gold, lead, copper, diamonds and zinc, and its oil and gas deposits are being developed. Some people still earn a living by hunting, fishing and trapping. Wheat and cattle belong to the Prairies, and wine and fruit to B.C.’s Okanagan Valley.
Learn more: The North and Yukon
- Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut cover one-third of Canada’s land mass but have only about 139,000 people (2026 estimate).
- Northern mines produce gold, lead, copper, diamonds and zinc. Oil and gas deposits are being developed.
- In summer, daylight can last up to 24 hours. In winter the sun disappears and it is dark for three months.
- The North has long, cold winters and short, cool summers.
- Tundra is a vast rocky Arctic plain with no trees and permanently frozen soil.
- Some people continue to earn a living by hunting, fishing and trapping. Inuit art is sold around the world.
- Thousands of miners came to Yukon in the Gold Rush of the 1890s, celebrated in the poetry of Robert W. Service. Mining is still important.
- The White Pass and Yukon Railway opened in 1900, from Skagway, Alaska, to Whitehorse, the capital.
- Yukon holds Canada’s coldest recorded temperature, -63°C.
- Mount Logan, in Yukon, is Canada’s highest mountain. It is named after geologist Sir William Logan, founder of the Geological Survey of Canada.