Official Name: | Kimmirut |
Native Name: | ᑭᒻᒥᕈᑦ |
Settlement Type: | Hamlet |
Pushpin Map: | Canada Nunavut#Canada |
Subdivision Type: | Country |
Subdivision Name: | Canada |
Subdivision Type1: | Territory |
Subdivision Name1: | Nunavut |
Subdivision Type2: | Region |
Subdivision Name2: | Qikiqtaaluk |
Subdivision Type3: | Electoral district |
Subdivision Name3: | South Baffin |
Government Footnotes: | [1] [2] |
Leader Title: | Mayor |
Leader Name: | Maliktuk Lyta |
Leader Title1: | MLA |
Leader Name1: | David Joanasie |
Established Title: | Anglican mission |
Established Date: | 1909 |
Area Footnotes: | (2021) |
Area Total Km2: | 2.3 |
Population As Of: | 2021 |
Population Total: | 426 |
Population Density Km2: | 185.2 |
Timezone: | EST |
Utc Offset: | −05:00 |
Timezone Dst: | EDT |
Utc Offset Dst: | −04:00 |
Coordinates: | 62.8467°N -69.8719°W |
Elevation Footnotes: | [3] |
Elevation M: | 53 |
Postal Code Type: | Canadian Postal code |
Postal Code: | X0A 0N0 |
Area Code: | 867 |
Website: | www.kimmirut.ca |
Kimmirut (Syllabics: ᑭᒻᒥᕈᑦ pronounced as /kimːiɢut/; known as Lake Harbour until 1 January 1996) is a community in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is located on the shore of Hudson Strait on Baffin Island's Meta Incognita Peninsula. Kimmirut means "heel", and refers to a rocky outcrop in the inlet.
It was at one time a Hudson's Bay Company trading post, and a Royal Canadian Mounted Police post. The Canadian explorer J. Dewey Soper used these posts as headquarters during his explorations in the 1920s and 1930s.
The community is served by Kimmirut Airport and by annual supply sealift. A proposal in 2005 for a road to Iqaluit was determined to be impractical owing to roundabout routing over the mountains.
In the 2021 Canadian census conducted by Statistics Canada, Kimmirut had a population of 426 living in 116 of its 150 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 389. With a land area of, it had a population density of in 2021.[4]
The community has been served by the Qiniq network since 2005. Qiniq is a fixed wireless service to homes and businesses, connecting to the outside world via a satellite backbone. The Qiniq network is designed and operated by SSI Micro. In 2017, the network was upgraded to 4G LTE technology, and 2G-GSM for mobile voice.
Kimmirut has an Arctic climate (Köppen: ET), although it is well outside the Arctic Circle. The city has cold winters and short summers that are too cool to permit the growth of trees. It is north of the tree line, and average monthly temperatures are below freezing for eight months of the year. Kimmirut averages just over of precipitation annually, wetter than many other localities in the Arctic Archipelago, with the summer being the wettest season.