Boiling point reached in the Arctic
Polar bear population
Students ride along in a qamutik as they go 'out on the land' to witness the caribou hunt as part of a trip to Cambridge Bay in Nunavut
Credits: FILE PHOTO
CAMBRIDGE BAY, Nunavut -- A remote hamlet in Canada's Arctic archipelago is welcoming a visitor that will put it on the map.
No, not Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who's visiting the community this week.
It's Internet giant Google's street view team, heading north of the Arctic Circle to record the streets and building of the 1,600-strong community for its online maps.
"It is the furthest north we've travelled in Canada - and one of the most remote projects we've ever embarked upon," Google publicist Aaron Brindle said.
Brindle noted the local Inuit community are helping map the streets, building, roads, rivers and lakes to the Google map of the region.
Google representatives were in Cambridge Bay Wednesday and Thursday to co-ordinate the project.
Cambridge Bay is the site of a new Arctic research station the federal government promised to build back in 2010. It's slated to be completed by 2017.
The mapping event happened to coincide with Harper's annual summer trip to Canada's North - and Harper paid a visit to the project's headquarters in a room above a Pizza Hut and a KFC outlet.
While there, he received an explanation of the mapping project and the efforts to accurately detail the town.
Cambridge Bay is the only stop in Nunavut on the prime minister's five-day tour.
