* G7 meeting marks Iqaluit's 2nd day in the sun this year
* Average Feb daytime temperature is -23.8 C (-11 F)
* Ottawa seeks to reinforce its Arctic claims
By Allan Dowd
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Delegates to next February's G7 finance ministers' meeting in the Canadian Far North should watch their spelling and remember they are not far from the Road to Nowhere.
The meeting, set for February 5-6, will take place in Iqaluit, the tiny capital of the giant Arctic territory of Nunavut, Canadian officials said on Wednesday.
It will mark the second time in six months the Canadian government has put the political spotlight on the community of about 7,000 people on Baffin Island along Frobisher Bay and a growing outpost on Canada's northern frontier.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper held a cabinet meeting in Iqaluit in August alongside a military exercise designed to reinforce Canada's claim on sovereignty to the Arctic -- a claim that the United States partially disputes.
The name Iqaluit means "place with many fish" in the native Inuktitut language. But some of those on the August tour discovered the hard way that English speakers often misspell the name as Iqualuit, with an extra "u" that changes the word's Inuktitut meaning to "people with unwiped bums."
Iqaluit road signs are written in both English and the geometric lettering of Inuktitut, and one street on the edge of town could draw attention from delegates wondering if the world's economy is headed into uncharted territory.
The Road to Nowhere, as it is officially known in English, leads off into treeless hills.
CLOSER TO GREENLAND
Accessible from the rest of the country only by air or sea, Iqaluit is closer to Greenland than Canada's major population centers.
Although the town boasts some large modern buildings, including the legislature, high school and a couple of hotels, most inhabitants are crowded into small wooden homes.
The roads are covered with snow in the long winter and dust in the short summer months.
Delegates will be well advised to bring their warmest clothes. The average February daytime temperature is -23.8 Celsius (-11 Fahrenheit), with a good chance of fog, and somewhat smaller odds on heavy snowstorms.
Like many isolated communities in Canada's Far North, Iqaluit suffers a higher rate of poverty and social woes than much of the rest of Canada.
"Drugs and alcohol -- it's at the root of all the problems," a city councilor told Reuters during Harper's August visit.
Officials in Nunavut, which is Canada's newest territory with a large native Inuit population, say solving poverty will require the federal government to give them more control over its potentially vast offshore energy resources.
FOOLS GOLD
The community overlooks a bay named for English explorer Martin Frobisher who sailed into it in 1576 thinking he had found the famed Northwest Passage and a route to China.
He then sailed home with what he thought was gold from the area. It turned out to be pyrite, or "fool's gold."
Iqaluit was established near the site of an air base that U.S. military built during the Second World War and operated through much of the Cold War until 1963. The airfield is still the key passenger link to the outside world.
It wasn't even big enough to be officially classified a village until the mid-1970s, but the population has grown to the point where local officials recently debated whether to install the community's first stop light.
The February meeting may also give Canada a chance to push its case against the European Union's ban on imported of seal products. Seal is part of territory of Nunavut's culture and diet, and delegates will no doubt be offered a taste. (Additional reporting by David Ljunggren, Editing by Janet Guttsman)