History of Northwest Territories capital cities to evaluate and recommend changes to the Northwest Territories to deal with an array of outstanding issues regarding self-government in the north. One of the more visible and lasting effects of the Carrothers Commission was to choose a new capital city for the territorial government. The Carrothers Commission, for the first time, gave some voice to residents in the Northwest Territories through extensive consultations with the territorial population. In prior years, the decision to change the seat of government had always been made without consulting Northwest Territories residents. Edgar Dewdney, for example, who made the decision to change the capital
Yellowknife limited to the Kam Lake and airport subdivisions. Jolliffe Island sits in Yellowknife Bay and is public land under the jurisdiction of the City of Yellowknife after a land purchase when Imperial Oil vacated the site. The island is surrounded by a community of houseboats who have been living off the grid since 1978. Their relationship with the city is complex and often strained as the houseboats are popular with sightseers, but at the same time they live outside of the city's tax jurisdiction while using city services leading to lawsuits and tensions with the City of Yellowknife. Yellowknife has