The May 1999 Millennium coin, entitled The Voyageurs, features the work of Sergiy Minenok, a professional artist of Surrey, British Columbia. His winning design was submitted to the Mint's "Create a Centsation" coin design contest.

The coin depicts voyageurs and an aboriginal guide paddling a canoe. They are travelling through the Canadian wilderness along a shoreline of rock outcrops and trees representing the vast Canadian Shield that Voyageurs traversed while exploring new lands and developing the fur trade. The Voyageurs were instrumental in opening and charting the vast Northwest and introducing the first European-based economy to the region.

Artist Sergiy Minenok stated that his design was "inspired by my childhood visions of the vast North American wilderness and the romance and excitement of early explorers, adventurers and fur traders depicted by such writers as James Fenimore Cooper and films I saw as a child."

The launch ceremony for the coin took place on May 3, 1999 at The Forks, the historic Winnipeg junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers that have been a traditional meeting place for centuries.