History of Northwest Territories capital cities developed community, closest to Ottawa. Fort Smith housed the civil service working in the Territories officially until 1967. The town continued to host the civil service for many years after Yellowknife was picked as capital, because the infrastructure was not yet in place in the new capital city at the time. The "Advisory Commission on the Development of Government in the Northwest Territories", commonly called the Carrothers Commission for its chair, Alfred Carrothers, was struck by the Government of Canada in 1965. The Carrothers Commission marked a significant turning point in modern Northwest Territories history. The Carrothers Commission was tasked
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