Consensus government in Canada Consensus government in Canada Consensus government is a form of consensus democracy government in Canada used in two of Canada's three federal territories (Northwest Territories and Nunavut) as well as in Nunatsiavut, an autonomous area in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The population of these jurisdictions are majority Indigenous peoples. The system developed in the Northwest Territories beginning during the 1970s, and was adopted by Nunavut when it came into existence in 1999. In 1905, the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were separated from the then much larger Northwest Territories. The Yukon Territory had been created in 1898 to
Melville Island (Northwest Territories and Nunavut) deposits. The island was believed to have deposits of coal and oil shale since the first half of the 20th century. The first Canadian Arctic island exploratory well was spudded in 1961 at Winter Harbour. It drilled Lower Paleozoic strata to a total depth of . In the 1970s, the northern portion of the island on the east side of the Sabine Peninsula proved to contain a major gas field, known as Drake Point. The lease was owned by Panarctic Oils, a joint operation with the Canadian Government. Melville Island (Northwest Territories and Nunavut) Melville Island is an uninhabited island