Nunavut's environment minister says he's open to an MLA's proposal to get the Back River added to Canada's official list of heritage rivers.

The Back River was long home to Inuit hunters who settled in the modern hamlets of Baker Lake and Gjoa Haven, Baker Lake MLA Moses Aupaluktuk told the territorial legislature on Wednesday.

"The Back River as well too has some historic importance to, I guess, the sovereignty of Canada," Aupaluktuk told the assembly.

In 1834, British explorer George Back found the headwaters of the river at the top of the East Arm of Great Slave Lake. He followed the river for more than 1,000 kilometres to its end at Chantrey Inlet.

Aupaluktuk also noted that the late great Inuit artist Jessie Oonark called the Back River home.

"Her work is well recognized throughout the world," he said.

"A lot of it's been sitting in the Vatican, Buckingham Palace, the National Gallery of Canada."

The territory currently has three rivers occasionally recognized in the Canadian Heritage Rivers System:

  • Kazan River, designated in 1990.
  • Thelon River, designated in 1990.
  • Soper River, designated in 1992.

A fourth river, the Coppermine River in western Nunavut, has been nominated.

Environment Minister Daniel Shewchuk said the territorial government would be pleased to nominate the Back River to the national Canadian Heritage Rivers Board, which decides whether to recommend the heritage designation.

"Of course, we would have to do quite in-depth consultation with the community of Baker Lake and all interested user groups," Shewchuk said.

"But if that was an interest of the community of Baker Lake, we would be interested in looking at something like that."

Nominations for heritage river status can be made only by provincial and territorial governments.

Should the Nunavut government nominate the Back River, it would have to design a management plan or heritage strategy to preserve the river's natural, cultural and recreational values.

The national board then reviews the nomination and can recommend the heritage designation to the federal government.

Once a river is designated as a heritage river, it is preserved in its natural form into the future.