Iqaluit

* **Population:** an estimated ~1,250,000 residents (350,000 citizens/900,000 temporary workers)
* **Government:** A City Father, nominated by the InutuKak, the Elder householders of the city and elected by popular vote, has responsibility for heading up the City's Deputy Council, which heads up the departments of the city bureaucracy.
* **Territoriality:** Iqaluit is the capital of the Qikiqtaaluk Territory of the Inuit Nunangat. The Nunangat has never ratified the Business Recognition Accords, and so does not recognize corporate extraterritoriality. However the Qikiqtaaluk Executive has established the Frobisher Bay Special Economic Area in the harbor to incentivize the local corporations, run for them by EVO-owned FESCO Group, and serving such companies as the mining companies Pisces, Bathotech and Equinor, aquaculture giant Farm The Sea, Kakivak Whaling,
* **Law Enforcement:** All law enforcement is provided by the Iqaluit branch of the Nunangat Peace Force.
* **Transportation:** The services Iqaluit Public Transport (IPT) are supplemented by the private provider Qamutik Mobility Services.
* **Demographics (by metatype):** 58% Inuk, 22% Tuniit, 9% Inupasgjuk, 5% Inukin, 4% Adlivan, 1% Shapeshifter, 1% Other

There are boomtowns in this world, and then there is Iqaluit. Ten years ago, this sleepy little fishing town had a population of 11,318, a backwater territorial capital. Now over a million people call this port city home.

Why? It’s a pretty simple answer. Oil.

OK, so it’s more complex than that, but yeah, basically, in the wake of the Crash, a new, expansionistic administration came to power in the Nunangat and began aggressive exploitation of the arctic oil reserves. Iqaluit’s position on the shipping lanes between the drilling rigs of the north and industrial processing centers in the Thule Protectorate made it the crossroads for all the money flowing out of, and being invested in, that new burgeoning industry.

Iqaluit has grown a hundred-fold in the last decade, going from a mainly-fishing center to a shipping and industrial powerhouse powered on arctic oil. The construction industry alone has drawn workers from across the northern hemisphere as the city’s contractors literally struggle to keep up with demand as new buildings and even whole districts seem to crop up daily. As of 2072, Iqaluit is the second largest city in the Nunangat (behind Reykjavik) and the largest Nunangat city in North America. The Kiviuq regime in Invik holds the growth of Iqaluit up as a shining example of the new Trans-Polar prosperity. Which is why when the Nunangat lifted the ban on Urban Brawl in 2075, Iqaluit was chosen to host their North American team, The Apex (sister franchise to the Reykjavik Berserkrs, who play in the European League).

Of course, growth this rapid doesn’t come without it’s dark side. Transient and temporary workers flooding in from Russia, Siberia, Japan, Scandinavia, Quebec, Na Dene Nen, Niswi-Mishkodewinan and elsewhere have overwhelmed the city’s services, and frequent utilities failures in newer or outlying districts can lead to fatalities in the harsh, unforgiving winters. While the Nunangat has rushed to assign more of it’s ubiquitous Peace Force to the area, they are still ridiculously outnumbered by the surging population and that, combined with a local tradition of personal vengeance, has resulted in a spike in violent crime that the elders back in Invik are reluctant to address. Despite rules against it, the local corps have started importing their own security forces to secure their holdings, something the City Father and Deputy Council seem reluctant to confront.

Naturally the combination of an understrength police force and an influx of money have attracted vultures from across the hemisphere. Previous to the boom, the only organized crime were occasional visits from a loose group of Quebec-based smugglers known locally as the ‘Qallunaat’, but in the last ten years, Vory from Vladivostok, Yakuza from Japan, Mafia from Quebec, the Hel's Daughters (an Ancients affiliate biker gang out of Reykjavik) and others, along with a host of smaller outfits, have descended on Iqaluit like vultures on a fresh kill. There’s been enough money to go around so far, but the Peace Force suspects that at least some of the spike in violent crime has been related to this new set of players.

Naturally, I shouldn’t have to tell any of you, this has made for a whole lot of good shadowrunning. Watch out if you do business here, though. This is a fresh territory and nobody is stable, so come prepared because you never know if you’ll be able to find what you need as far as local contacts go...

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