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The Canadian territory of Nunavut was formed in April 1999, by the splitting of the Northwest Territories.
At the time of division, the governments of both territories agreed to Nunavut continuing to use the NWT's polar bear-shaped license plates, which had been in use since 1970. Although the design of the plates was shared, the government of the NWT held the copyright. Nunavut's version of the plate differed from the NWT's in the name of the jurisdiction at the bottom and the addition of an "N" suffix after the numbers.
In 2010, the government of the NWT decided to update its version of the polar bear-shaped plate. In turn, the government of Nunavut opted to go with a new plate design. On 3 August 2011, Nunavut announced that a contest would be held to create the new plates.
The contest was entered by 123 people, who between them submitted 200 designs. On 6 March 2012, Iqaluit resident Ron Froese was named the winner. His design consisted of a night scene featuring a polar bear, an inuksuk, three sets of northern lights to represent the three regions of Nunavut (Kitikmeot, Kivalliq and Qikiqtaaluk), and 25 stars to represent the communities of the territory. This design was first made available to motorists in July 2012.
Passenger baseplates 1999 to present
In 1956, the U.S. states and Canadian provinces came to an agreement with the Automobile Manufacturers Association that fixed the size for licence plates for vehicles, except those for motorcycles, at six inches in height by twelve inches in width, with standardized mounting holes. The 2012 issue was the territory's first licence plate that fully complied with these standards. However the 1999 issue bear shaped plates feature the standardized mounting holes as did the Northwest Territories plates they were based on.