It is likely that Tuktoyaktuk will have to relocate in the next 30 years.

Few communities in Canada are as exposed to extreme climate change hazards as Tuktoyaktuk, a primarily Indigenous community located on the Beaufort Sea, in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region of the Northwest Territories. Already, homes in the community are being relocated at considerable expense due to rapid coastal erosion. Projections of sea level rise, permafrost thaw and sea ice melting have been modelled by researchers, while engineers have proposed mitigation strategies to the ongoing issues of erosion. Annually there are community led efforts to try to mitigate erosion, repair roads, and re-level houses that have shifted because of the thaw. To maintain an emergency exit, the road by the water reservoir has had to be raised, while the road to the power plant is not usable for the summer due to flooding. In the mid 90s, erosion and flooding resulted in the creation of Reindeer Point and the school and RCMP offices being moved. 

At present rates of erosion, sea level rise and permafrost thaw, the entire townsite will be unviable by 2050. Currently, the island is eroding by two metres per year and the peninsula point, 10 km to the east, is eroding at three and a half metres a year, causing houses to be relocated inland. The average population growth is 1.03% annually. If this number remains consistent it is estimated that in 2050 approximately 1200 people will need to be relocated. The existing solutions to the environmental challenges in Tuktoyaktuk are short-sighted, relying on reactive action that have proven ineffective in the past rather than developing proactive solutions for the future.