Rae-Edzo, NT 1970 Rae-Edzo are twin communities, their hyphenation the result of a relocation project initiated by the Government of Canada and inherited by the Government of the Northwest Territories in 1970. In the 1960s health problems and a number of deaths in Rae linked to poor sanita- tion caused alarm amongst government officials. Local papers portrayed the poor water quality, drainage and housing conditions of a northern ghetto. Action was taken to move the community to the Edzo site where soil was favourable for underground piping and drainage, and access to the main highway provided ease of servicing. Fed eral and territorial government officials, consultants and specialists consulted the community which expressed health concerns but also spoke of a desire to stay near their fishing boats and of the significance of the geographic and historic location of Rae for the Dogrib people. Nonetheless officials felt that they had received local endorsement to move the community, and the infrastructure of Edzo was constructed. The majority of the population of Rae did not move to Edzo and remain, as they traditionally have, on the rocky point on Marion Lake. Children were bussed to the new school in Edzo until a government freeze on infrastructure in Rae was lifted and education and health facilities were built to meet the needs of Rae residents.Today Rae-Edzo functions logistically as one hamlet, Edzo primarily as an enclave of non- native teachers and government workers with a combined population of about 1860 people. Edzo is 24 kilometres down highway No. 3 from Rae (6 km by boat or ice road) on a water channel that connects Marion Lake to the North Arm of Great Slave Lake. In contrast to the subur- ban planning model applied to the design of Edzo and recent growth of Rae, smoke houses, lean-to structures and traditional lodges pop up in side yards between houses illustrating the human ability to improvise in foreign environments.With the recent signing of Dogrib Treaty 11 the town of Rae will continue to be the growing hub of Dogrib settlement. Existing patterns of adaptation provide cues for new planning develop-
Canada North: new towns Tracey Mactavish
i n the Canadian Arctic today most permanent communities are new towns. Before the 1950s settlements were trading posts and the seasonal camps of a nomadic culture. Camp sites were based on their proximity to water, prevailing winds, patterns of animal movement and their cultural significance as traditional gathering areas and places of exchange. Camp formation was often by family grouping. Shelters were oriented with their back to the wind, their face to the sun and the water’s edge near by. After 1950, settlements as we now know them were created by the Government of Canada to simplify the administration of health, welfare and education services. Location was based on ease of access (by air or overland) and by terrain and soil condi- tions conducive to economical building services. Community form was the result of the systematic application of modern plan- ning ideals; single linear lots sized for fire separation, detached dwellings and a gridiron layout underpinned by an engineering culture. A number of relocation and new town projects from this period are comparable in their varied success and failure.The debris of northern development history, the constructed reality of these communities is our platform for change, evidence that the design of built form must understand and reflect the relationship of northern people to place.
right above: Government row right: Chief Jimmy Bruno School in Edzo
map from the Rae-Edzo community plan.
On Site review 11
6
Spring 2004
Architecture of the Circumpolar Region
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