History of the Northwest Territories Government of the Northwest Territories, arrived in Yellowknife on board a chartered DC-7. In 1969, A special committee of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories chose a new flag for the territory. Robert Bessant's design was chosen among entries to a Canada-wide contest. The government would introduce the popular polar bear license plate in 1970. In 1975, the territorial government once again became a fully elected body. By 1961, the federal government devolved responsibility for place naming to the provinces. But not in the territories. In 1984, the Canadian Government agreed to transfer the responsibility for naming places to
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