Now in its third year, the adaptive snowsport program at the Mount Sima ski hill provides lessons to neurodiverse individuals or those living with a physical or visual impairment.

The Qinnirvik Country Food and Bulk Store aims to tackle food insecurity by providing food at flexible prices.

RCMP are trying to find a person alleged to have stolen a car in Alberta, driven it to the Northwest Territories and then fled from a traffic stop.

Nunavut will receive $97 million as part of a multibillion-dollar settlement between three major tobacco companies and Canada’s provinces and territories.

“I feel some sense of justice about it in terms of the tobacco companies being held accountable for the wrongs and the harm that they caused to people,” Health Minister John Main said in an interview at the legislative assembly on Friday.

The Ontario Superior Court approved a $32.5-billion settlement in a ruling released Thursday.

It’s part of a decades-long legal battle the provinces and territories launched in 1998 against Canada’s three largest tobacco distributors: Imperial Tobacco Ltd.; Rothmans, Benson & Hedges; and JTI-Macdonald Corp.

As part of the settlement, Nunavut will receive $23 million up front while the remaining $74 million is expected to come over five years, Main said.

The money will help strengthen health-care services, support research into smoking-related diseases, and hold tobacco companies accountable for their past actions, the Nunavut government said in a news release.

As well, Nunavummiut will be able to apply for compensation for the harm they suffered from smoking. Considering the territory’s high smoking rates, there could be a lot of applicants, Main said.

“We continue to battle the high smoking rates here in the territory. It’s much too high. Nowadays we know about the harms, we know about the tools that we can use to quit smoking,” Main said.

In 2018, 70 per cent of Nunavummiut aged 16 and older smoked tobacco, with some communities reaching 84 per cent.

By comparison, that year the average smoking rate across the provinces was 16 per cent for people age 12 and older, according to the Canadian Community Health Survey.

The compensation will be provided through a court-monitored third-party organization, likely a law firm, Main said, adding the details are still being worked out.

Smoking causes an increased risk for cancers, damages the heart and blood vessels, and causes lung and respiratory problems, according to the federal government.

“If this news is something that makes Nunavummiut think about ways to quit smoking, we have all that information available. We want to be their partners,” Main said.

The Tłı̨chǫ and federal governments announced a deal to plant 12 million trees over the next seven years in N.W.T., from locally-harvested seeds. Canada is putting nearly $45 million into the project while the Tłı̨chǫ government is pitching in more than $8 million. 

The Tłı̨chǫ Government and federal government are jointly investing more than $53 million to plant 12 million trees on Tłı̨chǫ land in the coming years.

Charlie Angnatuk and Zachariah Saunders are the 2025 Ivakkak champions after a six-day dogsled race that took them from Kangiqsualujjuaq to the finish line in their hometown of Tasiujaq.

They arrived Thursday after covering 328 kilometres with a race time of 26 hours and 23 minutes. Just 14 minutes behind them were Willie Cain Jr. and Tamisa Saunders, another team from Tasiujaq.

The two teams matched each other’s pace throughout the race. On the final day, Cain Jr. actually arrived in Tasiujaq before Angnatuk, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the fact that Angnatuk’s overall race time was faster.

In third place was Puvirnituq’s Jean-Marie Beaulne and Jackusi Amamatuak, who completed the gauntlet in 27 hours and 45 minutes.

The race kicked off Feb. 26 but on several days was paused, either due to poor conditions or for rest. Mushers faced multiple challenges throughout; 11 teams started the race but one dropped out midway.

Former musher George Kauki called the path between Kangiqsualujjuaq, where the race started, and Kuujjuaq the most difficult trail in Nunavik with continuous hills and soft snow.

Between those two communities, mushers endured temperatures around -30 C and had to stop for one day due to blowing snow and whiteout conditions.

In Kuujjuaq, teams stopped for two days to let the dogs rest and for a community feast. Tasiujaq also welcomed the finishers with a feast and an awards ceremony, honouring Angnatuk and Saunders for their victory.

In an interview during the stopover in Kuujjuaq, Makivvik president Pita Aatami said 16 teams signed up for the race this year but due to the logistics of transporting the dogs on charter flights, only 11 teams could participate.

Just a few years ago, he said, there was only one racer who participated, “so we are evolving.”

“We are looking at how we can make it better for everybody, because it takes a lot of money to hold this race,” Aatami said.

“It is still evolving even after 23 years of racing,” he said. “We still want to make it better.”

For next year’s race, he said Makivvik will engage with mushers earlier to get their feedback on how it can be improved.

“We want to keep this, because it brings back a lot of memories for older people but it also brings pride to the younger generation,” Aatami said.

“Be true to yourself, have faith in people and every little bit of kindness helps.”

Those are the words of wisdom offered Friday by Dr. Amber Miners, an Iqaluit pediatrician based at the Umingmak Child Advocacy Centre which provides healing services for children and youth who have been abused.

Miners was presented the Wise Woman award for 2024 by the Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women Council during a ceremony Friday afternoon at the legislative assembly.

“She has dedicated her career to combat child maltreatment,” said Margaret Nakashuk, Nunavut’s minister responsible for the status of women, while presenting the award.

“Every day, this woman goes above and beyond to protect Nunavut’s children and families.”

In addition to honouring Miners, Nakashuk named Emery Maksagak of Cambridge Bay as the recipient of the Outstanding Young Woman award.

Maksagak is a future early childhood educator and a “highly involved” volunteer, said Nakashuk. Maksagak wasn’t at the award ceremony, but had a friend accept the award.

Qulliit presents the two awards annually on or around International Women’s Day, which is March 8.

Past Wise Woman award recipients include former Iqaluit mayor and MLA Elisapee Sheutiapik. North of North star Anna Lambe is a past Outstanding Young Woman Award recipient.

Miners said she was “touched and surprised” to be named the Wise Woman. With a career in Nunavut dating back to 2003, she told reporters she never thought she would be honoured this way.

“When I first came to Nunavut, I was just a baby, I’ll say, in my career and my work, and Nunavut has really shaped me and built me,” she said.

“I’m so grateful to the people that I’m able to work with and to have this recognition. It means a lot.”

Authorities managing the winter road north of Yellowknife said a stricken truck shown in viral photos this week did not go through the ice and nobody was hurt.

RCMP say two men were reportedly seen fleeing the site of a house fire after apparent gunfire was heard on Fort Smith's Field Street early Friday.

Frustration was apparent by the participants during a local meeting between the Cree Nation Government (CNG) and the tallymen because of the knowledge gap on the processes of natural resource extraction and the rights of the crees.

A Cambridge Bay youth group home is closing after an investigation into a report of possible child harm at the facility.

The Nunik Care Services youth group home has until March 11 to “facilitate the safe and orderly transition of children and youth” from the home, the Department of Family Services announced Feb. 28 in a news release.

Details of the incident that spurred the report are unclear, but Nunavut RCMP confirmed the involvement of Cambridge Bay officers in an investigation into alleged “physical incidents” at the home.

“RCMP did not find evidence to support charges in relation to the alleged physical incidents, therefore no one was charged,” Cpl. George Henrie, the Nunavut RCMP spokesperson, said in an email Thursday.

“The Cambridge Bay RCMP did notify child family services of the alleged incidents, and the outcome of their investigation.”

The department opened its investigation in November. As a result of that, on Jan. 10 the department sent a letter to Nunik executive director Solomon Bucknor informing him the facility’s licence would be revoked.

Bucknor, reached on Thursday, said he was still working to move out of the home but declined to comment.

Nunik has capacity for 10 beds, according to its website. It is unclear how many youths are still residing at the home or where they will go once it is closed.

The facility has been controversial in Cambridge Bay. CBC News reported in December that a petition circulated in the community calling for the Nunavut government to close the home due to acts of vandalism and theft that residents blamed on youths living there.

“I don’t have anything official [but] I heard complaints about increased vandalism since the home was open,” said Cambridge Bay chief administrative officer Jim MacEachern.

Henrie confirmed Cambridge Bay police investigated reports of vandalism and theft by youths living at Nunik but did not provide any specifics.

The Department of Family Services did not provide answers to a list of questions provided by Nunatsiaq News regarding Nunik group home. The department also did not respond to a request for an interview.

Wesley Marcellais, 44, Hilary Norwegian, 34, and Avery Burke, 6, all died within the first six weeks of 2025. Their families say their treatments are examples of substandard health care for Indigenous people. MLAs passed a motion Thursday calling for an investigation.

Emergency services have responded to a house fire in Fort Smith, N.W.T., and a report that possible shots were fired as part of the same incident, according to Fort Smith Protective Services on Friday morning. 

An estimated 150,000 litres of toxic water made its way to nearby Haggart Creek over a couple of days in February, officials say.

Nancy Karetak-Lindell, Nunavut’s newly appointed senator, says she is determined to be a voice for Nunavummiut in Ottawa by bringing Inuktitut into the Senate chamber.

“I can easily say if my mother spoke English, she could have been a senator,” Karetak-Lindell said Feb. 26 in an interview at Ottawa’s Victoria Building, which houses her Senate office.

“So, I’m going to speak in Inuktitut for my parents and all the others of their generation who lost control of how they manage their lives.”

Translating policy issues into Inuktitut can be a challenge, she noted, adding there are often no matching words for terms like “tariffs.”

Karetak-Lindell, who is from Arviat, was appointed to the Senate on Dec. 19. She succeeded former senator Dennis Patterson, who retired in December 2023.  She previously made history in 1997 as a Liberal MP — the first female MP for the Eastern Arctic, and the first representative for the new Nunavut riding.

She was re-elected three times after that and led the Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada as its president from 2016 to 2018.

Less than a month after Karetak-Lindell was appointed to the Senate, Parliament was prorogued until March 24 at the request of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who had announced his intention to resign.

That halted all legislative activities and there’s still no swearing-in date scheduled. Still, Karetak-Lindell said she is preparing for the work ahead.

“It is a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week job,” said Karetak-Lindell, who has completed her orientation and attended sessions led by other senators on topics such as tariffs.

She sees her new role as bridging the disconnect between the North and south.

“How to make people understand that we’re not just wanting handouts and we’re not just a welfare part of the country is always a part of my mind,” Karetak-Lindell said.

“We’re asking for what rightfully was given to other Canadians to also extend to us, but in a different time frame.”

Karetak-Lindell said, “I was born and raised in a time when someone sat in one of these offices and made policies and laws without ever having seen my people, my communities, and decided what was best for us.”

She wants to ensure young Inuit are educated on how local and federal governments work, so they’ll be ready to lead.

“If you know the system, then you know where to intervene.”

She said she is trying to “stay in the loop” by meeting with other political leaders and representatives of companies that do business in the North such as Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. and Baffinland Iron Mines Corp.

Arctic security, northern infrastructure, health care, and resource development are her other key priorities.

The broader conversation around the North’s role in Canada’s military security — especially after Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s pledge to build a permanent military base in Iqaluit if elected — often centres on infrastructure, she said. But that often ignores the people who will be most affected.

“I have to be one of those voices [to speak up] as there are people to protect and a land-claims agreement that needs to be respected,” said Karetak-Lindell.

“We need to be part of the discussions to determine what will be done in the North. I like to think we’re in a time when there’s consideration for the people, the environment, and for what’s put on our lands.”

She also sees her Senate role as an opportunity to challenge assumptions of equality between the provinces and territories.

“Our job through the federal government is to make that a level playing field,” she said. “Some people think that every Canadian has the same opportunities wherever they live. I know that’s not true.

“People down south expect the ambulance to come within 30 minutes and for their loved ones to be in a hospital in that short time. But that’s not what we can hope for,” she said, recounting an instance where it took two days to medevac her mother out of Arviat to Winnipeg for surgery.

Karetak-Lindell said her immediate priority is to get her office fully operational before the Senate resumes for the first planned sitting day of April 1. She’s in the process of hiring staff for her Ottawa office.

At 67, she is set to serve until she reaches the Senate’s mandatory retirement age of 75. Representing the largest geographical riding in Canada is not a job she takes “lightly,” she said, as she works to share the responsibility with Nunavut MP Lori Idlout.

“There’s always so much more that I can do using this position,” she said.

“And sometimes that gets overwhelming, the sense of responsibility that I hold in whatever I do, because I feel like I have to be the voice for so many who don’t have that chance.”

MLAs passed two motions aimed at addressing gaps in NWT healthcare: one involving "highly preventable deaths" and the other focused on medevac escorts.

The restaurant that fills the hole left by the closure of downtown Yellowknife's A&W will open its doors on Saturday. Take a look inside and meet the owners.

The closure of Aurora College's community learning centres will leave plenty of vacant buildings. There are "ongoing talks" about the facilities' future.

"This is all of our work as Canadians." Mahalia Yakeleya Newmark was appointed to the National Council for Reconciliation's inaugural board of directors.

The Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh MLA has called for an ice road between Yellowknife and Łútsël K'é, but the project does not appear likely to happen any time soon.

Ottawa committed up to $420,000 for pan-territorial work to attract mining investment. Meanwhile, exploration spending data shows contrasting northern fortunes.

N.W.T. Supreme Court Justice Nicolas Devlin has ordered lawyer Andrew Rogerson to return a $90,000 retainer from Ron Barlas that he illegally spent, and to pay all legal costs incurred by Lutsel K'e Dene First Nation lawyers during the legal action.

Aurora College's plans to close 19 community learning centres across the N.W.T. came under fire on Thursday, as college officials appeared before a standing committee of MLAs. 

Police in Inuvik shared images of a snowmobile similar to one associated with missing 32-year-old Lance Briere, who hasn't been seen in almost a month.

Lance Briere, 32, was last seen Feb. 8 at the Inuvik liquor store, RCMP have said. At the time, he was wearing a bright green toque, reflective jacket, black ski pants and black boots.

Baker Lake’s only food bank faces possible closure after black mould was discovered in the rented building it has operated from for the past two years.

Without a new location, Abluqta Society’s food bank as well as its thrift store and communal space won’t be able to continue operations, said Erin Strachan, manager of Indigenous Services at Performance Management Consultants, who helped establish the Abluqta Society in 2017.

“We’ve had to move three times already because of unsuitable building situations,” she said in an interview.

The food bank provides 250 grocery bags of food for people in need each month and has been running a daily hot lunch program since November.

On Feb. 19, workers discovered black mould in the washroom, behind the walls and under the floors, after fixing a leak in the building. They also identified an air quality hazard after testing other areas of the house. Since then, it has been temporarily closed.

Black mould is a fungus that can cause coughing, congestion and eye irritation and possibly worsen asthma symptoms, according to Health Canada.

The building, owned by Qamanittuaq Development Corp., is managed by landlord Piruqsaijit Ltd., which Strachan said has no other space available for the food bank due to a housing shortage in the community of about 2,000 residents.

The food bank was operating out of a three-bedroom house with a small kitchen, fridge and stove — a space they’ve managed to make work.

“In a dream world, we would have a decent-sized kitchen, one where we could do teaching and learning, because our society is more than just a food bank and thrift shop,” Strachan said.

Abluqta means “let us step forward” in Inuktitut. It offers recycled clothing, toys and household goods, and food via a community kitchen.

It also provides emergency food supplies to those in dire need between scheduled distributions.

Governed by an eight-member board that includes elders, a hunter with the hunters and trappers organization and several teachers, Abluqta helps residents by ensuring they have food and also with skills development and community-building.

The society employs three staff: an operations manager, thrift shop manager and community kitchen worker, who organize meals and run the hot lunch program that feeds up to 20 people a day.

“We’re trying to provide opportunities for local people to get work, make contributions to their community, and build their skills,” Strachan said.

“Part of how we’ve done that before is by inviting people into a community kitchen-type concept, where we’re purchasing food and preparing it. Whoever shows up to help out can learn how to cook, and we sit down together for a nice meal at the end of it all.”

Abluqta Society has relied on funding from Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd., the Department of Family Services, Food Banks Canada, and the Indigenous Peoples Resilience Fund. Now, she said, it is “casting their net wide” in a search for alternative housing.

“I think that we would probably be in a position to be fundraising for a new building, because it’s not ideal renting,” Strachan said.

“But we’re probably looking at three million dollars to build something in Baker Lake and it could take several years to fundraise that plan, get the materials up there and build it.”

Abluqta Society members will meet with Hamlet of Baker Lake representatives Thursday evening to see if a new building can be found.

“This is our survival we’re talking about,” Strachan said. “Without a suitable location, we won’t be able to operate. We can’t run the community kitchen and food bank from a sea can or someone’s house, we need a proper space.”

The Yukon government issued a budget with a projected $82-million surplus Thursday, but both the Eagle Gold mine disaster and Donald Trump's tariffs mean there's still plenty of uncertainty.

The N.W.T.'s housing corporation has evicted seven tenants from their homes since November for what it describes as illegal activities or disturbances, according to a spokesperson for the corporation. It's an issue one MLA raised in the Legislative Assembly last month.

Aurora College leaders defended their decision to close all NWT community learning centres – and told MLAs the replacement will be a model that's mostly online.

Aurora College's president used the word "problematic" to describe the community learning centres it plans to close. Some MLAs were unimpressed by that choice.

The federal government said it had reached a potential settlement with the plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit related to mistreatment at "Indian hospitals."