Quaqtaq
Quaqtaq is a northern village in Nunavik, northern Quebec, Canada. Its population was 453 in the Canada 2021 Census.
The village is one of the northernmost inhabited places in Quebec, located on the eastern shore of Diana Bay, on a peninsula which protrudes into the Hudson Strait where it meets Ungava Bay.
The name Quaqtaq signifies tapeworm. According to local folklore, this name derives from a man who once came to the area to hunt beluga and found live parasites in his feces. His hunting companions began to call the place Quaqtaq.
Inaccessible by road, Quaqtaq is served by the small Quaqtaq Airport - YQC.
History
Archaeological evidence indicates that people have occupied the area around Quaqtaq for about 3500 years. Thule people, the ancestors of today's Inuit, arrived around 1400 or 1500 AD.In 1947, a Roman Catholic mission opened in Quaqtaq. The present-day settlement was established after a trading post first established in 1927 at Iggiajaaq, a few kilometres south-west, was finally closed in 1950. After a measles epidemic killed 11 adults in 1952, the Canadian government began delivering basic services to the community. A nursing station was built in 1963. In the 1960s, the Quebec government opened a store and a post office equipped with a radio-telephone. In 1974, the store became a co-operative and, in 1978, Quaqtaq was legally established as a Northern village.
In 1996, the Kativik Regional Police Force was created in Nunavik, and became responsible for policing Quaqtaq. In 2021, the KRPF changed its name to the Nunavik Police Service.
Climate
Quaqtaq is located on the coast of Ungava Bay. Due to the influence of cold currents, the temperature in Nunavik is much lower than other areas at the same latitude. The climate of Quaqtaq is a typical tundra climate, because the average temperature in the warmest months of July and August is only. Contrariwise, the hottest month in most other areas at similar latitudes is much higher. For examples Anchorage's warmest month averages and Bergen's, whilst inland Yakutsk reaches.Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Quaqtaq had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of. With a land area of, it had a population density of in 2021.Population trend:
- Population in 2021: 453
- Population in 2016: 403
- Population in 2011: 376
- Population in 2006: 315
- Population in 2001: 305
- Population in 1996: 257
- Population in 1981: 150