Between 1971 and 1990, the town's economy was supported by the local Canadian Forces Station, CFS Inuvik, (originally a Naval Radio Station, later a communications research/signals intercept facility) and by petrochemical companies exploring the Mackenzie Valley and the Beaufort Sea for petroleum. This all collapsed in 1990 for a variety of reasons, including disappearing government military subsidies, local resistance to petroleum exploration, and low international oil prices. Since then the economy has been based on some minor tourism and subsidy provided by the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), Health Canada (for the regional hospital) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.