Apex, Iqaluit

The community got its start in 1949 when the Hudson's Bay Company moved its south Baffin operations from Ward Inlet to the Apex Beach location to take advantage of the increased activity near the new US Air Force Base and landing strip.

A monument to Inuit who went south as tuberculosis patients, and did not return, was commissioned by Pairijait Tigumivik, (the Iqaluit Elders' Society) and is located in front of the nursing station on the bank of the creek.

During the times of Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, Stu Hodgson, and his successor John H. Parker, residents of Apex were advised that the community was inefficient and no longer required.

A number of the Inuit housing units were moved to the airpost site at Frobisher Bay, including some which were relocated while their owners were away hunting.

The City of Iqaluit continues to prefer not to increase housing in Apex as it is serviced by more expensive "trucked water and sewer" systems.

Temperatures of the winter months are comparable to other northern communities further west on the continent such as Yellowknife and to some extent even Fairbanks, Alaska, even though Apex is a few degrees colder than the latter.

Summer temperatures are, however, much colder due to its easterly maritime position affected by the waters of the cold Baffin Island Current.

[7] Although it is north of the natural tree line, there are some short, south-facing imported black spruce (Picea mariana) specimens protected by snowdrifts in the winter,[8] in addition to a few shrubs, which are woody plants.