Northwest Territories Land and Property Records

Land Titles
Department of Justice, Land Titles, gives information about land titles.

Map of Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut


Free Blank Outline Maps, About.com.Geography (http://geography.about.com/library/blank/blxcanada.htm : accessed 2012).

History
The Northwest Territories once referred to all the Hudson’s Bay Company land and Rupert’s Land, which were united with Canada in 1870. The Northwest Territories were organized into provisional districts in the following years:

In 1880 the Territories were augmented by the addition of all the North American Arctic Islands claimed by Great Britain. In 1898, the Yukon District was made a separate territory. In 1905 the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were created.

An Order in Council, effective 1 January 1920, defined the boundaries of the districts of Mackenzie, Keewatin and Franklin. Since that time there has been a more recent change in the Northwest Territories. Namely, the Territory of Nunavut was established in 1999. It encompasses the central and eastern Arctic regions and is nearly one-fifth of Canada’s land mass. The balance remaining is now the Northwest Territories.

S.M. Hodgson, Commissioner has indicated that on September 18, 1968 the transfer of the Northwest Territories administration from Ottawa to Yellowknife took place; i.e. ‘Self-government’.

Depending on the date of the event you are trying to establish and confirm you will have to focus your search in the area that would have housed the records at the time, or, may have transferred their records to the most recent governmental agency.

Records created prior to 1870 should be located at the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives.


 * Hudson’s Bay Company Archives 130 - 200 Vaughan Street Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 1T5 Telephone: 204-945-4949 Email: [mailto:archives@gov.mb.ca archives@gov.mb.ca]

Land Titles Office

 * Northwest Territories Land Titles Office First Floor, Stuart M. Hodgson Building 5009 - 49th Street P.O. Box 1320 Yellowknife, Northwest Territories X1A 2L9 Telephone: 867-873-7491 Email: [mailto:landtitles@gov.nt.ca landtitles@gov.nt.ca]