The federal government will extend its Inuit Child First Initiative, averting what advocates of the program warned would be a “humanitarian crisis” if funding were to expire March 31 as planned.

Gary Anandasangaree, the Crown-Indigenous relations minister, announced a one-year extension of the program during a Nunavut-related announcement in Ottawa Saturday afternoon.

Speaking to dozens of Inuit at Ottawa’s Nunavut Sivuniksavut college, Anandasangaree said he was also announcing the extension on behalf of Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu, whose department funds the program.

“We wanted to make sure that there were no gaps in the services,” Anandasangaree said in an interview after he made the announcement.

The audience burst into applause after he said the program would continue.

“I’ve heard the positive impact the Child First Initiatives have had,” Anandasangaree said, adding he learned “first-hand” of the program’s impact while he was in Nunavut on government business a couple of times this year.

Anandasangaree told Nunatsiaq News in February that it was impossible to extend the program until Parliament resumed March 24. Staff in Hajdu’s office said the government was working on setting out long-term funding for the program.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was directly involved in the decision to extend the program before Parliament returns, Anandasangaree said, calling the one-year extension a “one-off” move made to address the “extraordinary issue.”

Anandasangaree emphasized it’s a one-year extension — not a long-term solution — that does still need to go through “a parliamentary process.”

Inuit Child First Initiative funding was one of the “very important cases” Trudeau wanted to conclude before he steps down as prime minister.

Liberals will pick a new party leader Sunday to replace Trudeau, who announced in January his plan to resign after nearly 12 years as head of the Liberal party, including more than nine years as prime minister.

The Inuit Child First Initiative provides funding for Inuit children to get help paying for things that affect their health or education. The federal government committed $167.5 million over two years, starting in the 2023-24 fiscal year, to the program.

Its most familiar services are food voucher programs recently implemented in many Nunavut hamlets. Last year, Iqaluit started its voucher program, which provides a $500 voucher a month to families for each child under 18 and an additional $250 for each child under four.

Supporters of the program, including Nunavut MP Lori Idlout, an NDP politician, have been calling on the federal Liberal government for months to announce an extension.

At a Feb. 28 news conference organized by Idlout, Taya Tootoo who works for the Arctic Children and Youth Foundation, warned the uncertainty about what happens after March 31 was “a humanitarian crisis in the making.”

Idlout said the program has helped more than 15,000 Inuit children.

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree announced the Inuit Child First Initiative will be renewed for another year at the signing of a new Nunavut Agreement Implementation Contract in Ottawa. 

What a busy week in the news. Let’s do the quiz!

1. A big cultural event kicked off in Kangiqsualujjuaq on Feb. 26. What is it?

A. Ivakkak is a weeklong competition of traditional Inuit sports.
B. Ivakkak is a dogsled race to Tasiujaq.
C. Ivakkak is a fishing tournament running over several days.

2. Nunavut cabinet minister David Joanasie announced this week that four communities could receive high-speed fibre optic internet service by 2031. Which of these communities is not on the list?

A. Kimmirut
B. Kinngait
C. Pangnirtung

3. It was announced this week that a historic property in Ottawa is being transformed as a permanent space for Indigenous governance, cultural events and meetings. What did the building used to be?

A. The U.S. Embassy
B. Office space used by prime ministers John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson
C. The head office of the Ottawa Senators hockey team

4. Nunavut, like the other territories and provinces, responded this week to the tariffs the U.S. has imposed on most Canadian products that it imports. What did Nunavut do?

A. Banned American companies from bidding on infrastructure projects.
B. Pulled American-made liquor from sales at Nunavut beer and wine stores.
C. Cancelled its satellite service contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink.

5. Recently, Arviat South MLA Joe Savikataaq slammed Premier P.J. Akeeagok over five elder mobility vans the Government of Nunavut bought last year that still are not in operation. What did Savikataaq characterize it as?

A. “A million-dollar photo op”
B. “The bus to nowhere”
C. “A million-dollar boondoggle”

Five Iqaluit communities will be linked to Nunavik’s high-speed fibre optic internet service by 2031, it was announced last week. (File photo)

Answers

1. B — The Ivakkak dogsled race started with 11 teams setting out to cover the 328-kilometre route from Kangiqsualujjuaq to Tasiujaq.
2. C — Pangnirtung will not join Kimmirut, Kinngait, Coral Harbour and Iqaluit in being connected to Nunavik’s Tamaani Internet network, at least not in 2031.
3. A — The buildings near Parliament Hill at 100 Wellington St. and 119 Sparks St. used to house the U.S. Embassy. They were vacant for more than 20 years before being redeveloped by the federal government for use by Indigenous groups.
4. B — All American-produced liquor will no longer be purchased by or sold at Nunavut Liquor and Cannabis Commission stores. It accounts for $600,000 to $700,000 of the total inventory, Lorne Kusugak, the minister responsible for the NULC, said in the legislative assembly.
5. A — Joe Savikataaq called it “a million-dollar photo op” and wondered why the vans weren’t working yet in the communities of Iqaluit, Cambridge Bay, Coral Harbour, Pangnirtung and Rankin Inlet.

If you’re having trouble making sense of the rapidly souring Canada-U.S. relationship, you’re not alone.

After U.S. President Donald Trump opened his trade war with its longstanding partner, Canada, this week and turned his back on Ukraine, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the United States is choosing to work closely with Russia and to appease Vladimir Putin, “a lying murderous dictator.”

“Make that make sense,” Trudeau said in news conference Tuesday.

It doesn’t.

Canadians are stunned by the pace and extent of the deterioration of the Canada-U.S. relationship — once upon a time (i.e., six weeks ago) one of the steadiest in the world.

It’s hard to imagine anywhere in Canada more removed from the United States — culturally, socially and economically — than Nunavut.

Nunavut won’t feel the effect of the Trump-imposed 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian-made goods entering the United States. The territory doesn’t ship goods into the U.S. the same way provinces like Ontario and Quebec do. Those jurisdictions are bracing for an economic slowdown because Americans will likely buy fewer of their suddenly more expensive goods, or because companies will move jobs from Canada to the U.S. to avoid the tariffs.

The pain Nunavut will suffer from a trade war will come from even higher prices on the already expensive goods it ships from the south. Prices of American goods coming into Canada will be higher because the Canadian government has imposed retaliatory tariffs.

But Nunavut’s leaders get the crisis that Canada finds itself in because of Trump’s very dumb (to echo the prime minister) trade war against Canada.

“This is a time to be united,” Premier P.J. Akeeagok said in a statement Tuesday, hours after Trump fired the first official trade war shots.

It has been reassuring to see Akeeagok and other Nunavut cabinet ministers consistently putting up that united front with other provincial and territorial leaders to stand up for Canada.

Little things, like pulling American-made booze from the beer and wine stores, demonstrate Nunavut is in step with provincial governments.

Unfortunately, the trade war is taking place while Canada faces a lot of uncertainty.

We’re expected to get a new prime minister on Sunday when Liberal party members pick a replacement for the resigning Trudeau. Coincidentally, Trudeau’s performance in the face of Trump’s tariff and annexation talk might be the best work of his nearly 10-year tenure.

Depending on who wins, there could be a federal election right away. If not, certainly by October.

Nunavut’s legislative assembly is also in its dying days before an October election. So watch for a flurry of Government of Nunavut activity over the spring and summer as cabinet ministers and MLAs rush to tie up loose ends.

It’s early days in the trade war. Uncertainty lies ahead. And it’s hard to make sense of it.

But the strong, united front leaders like Trudeau and Akeeagok are putting up is the right start.

City of Yellowknife staff say council should scrap plans to build a new drinking-water pipe from the Yellowknife River as the $100-million cost is too much.

At the PDAC mining convention, a former senior advisor to the Prime Minister's Office on Indigenous policy said critical minerals can help reset relationships.

The Danish Thule and Ellesmere Land Expedition of 1939-40 was a journey that is little known in the recent history of the Arctic.

It was also called the Van Hauen Expedition, after its leader James Van Hauen, but referring to it by that name is usually met with a blank stare. Almost no one has ever heard of it. Perhaps that is because it took place during the early days of the Second World War.

The expedition began in August 1939 when the participants established their winter quarters at Neqe, north of present-day Qaanaaq, in northwestern Greenland. It ended in 1940, some time after the Nazi invasion of Denmark in April of that year.

Many expedition accounts, written by white men (Qallunaat), have much to say about the Inuit who acted as their guides and other Inuit whom they encountered, but very little to say about what Inuit thought of the Qallunaat.

The account of this expedition, written by the well-known Danish zoologist Christian Vibe — who was a member of the expedition — is noteworthy for recording what the Inuit participants had to say about the white men.

Kutsikitsoq was one of the Inughuit who accompanied the expedition. Although he was the son of Uutaaq, a great leader and reputed shaman, Kutsikitsoq himself was never recognized as a leader.

French anthropologist Jean Malaurie, who travelled with him a decade after the Van Hauen expedition and referenced his “mocking smile” and “celebrated charm,” quoted another Inuk (without naming him) as sayin, about Kutsikitsoq: “He talks too much! He has no self-control; he brags like a child!”

Malaurie thought that, perversely, Kutsikitsoq’s lack of leadership among the Inughuit, his weakness “comes from the fear of a son who hopes to measure up to the greatness of his father.”

But Kutsikitsoq showed wisdom, if not leadership. While Malaurie was planning a difficult trip that he would make with Kutsikitsoq, the Inuk said, “And you have to understand that if anything happened to you … well, I’m the one who would be blamed by the white men down there. We’ve seen that happen, too.”

On the Van Hauen Expedition, Kutsikitsoq gave this word of caution to Christian Vibe about writing up the results of the expedition:

“Don’t write too much about us. White men keep on running around with notebook and pencil, as though they were incapable of remembering anything, and they write down a whole mass of trivialities; and when they go home, they feed the people with a lot of lies about us and have themselves been great heroes.

“You will perhaps do the same and give us all something to laugh about, till the stones come rolling down the mountains, when the priest tells us what you have written about us and about yourself.”

It may have come as an unexpected revelation to Vibe to learn that the Inughuit often knew what the chroniclers of previous expeditions had written about them.

But there had been priests of the Lutheran Church in the Thule District since 1909 — those priests were generally formally educated Greenlanders from farther down the Greenland coast, men who spoke Kalaallisut and learned the language of the north Greenlanders and communicated the ways of the outside world to the northern hunters.

Kutsikitsoq continued his good-natured admonition with a suggestion that Christian Vibe did not follow, but nonetheless reported: “Lend me your pencil and I will scratch it all out, for it is surely mostly lies.”

Hans Nielsen was the Danish manager of the colony at Thule, and he gave similar advice to the members of the expedition: “The less your work is publicized in the newspapers at home, the more will we think of it up here; for it has happened often that those who have come home with important results have been passed by in silence, while others have been received as great men.”

Another Inuk who participated in the expedition was Inuutersuaq, who was accompanied by his wife, Naduk. Christian Vibe explained to Inuutersuaq that he must not shoot muskoxen within Canada. The hunter responded with, “Yes, but… the Canadian police don’t understand about muskoxen.”

He explained to Vibe that wolves eat many muskoxen, and offered to even the odds.

“I will shoot two wolves for every muskox,” he suggested.

But Christian Vibe, and Canadian law, prevailed.

The account of this expedition is remarkable in presenting the Inuit point of view on many matters.

On the expedition’s return to Greenland from Ellesmere Island, they learned of the invasion of Denmark from an unlikely source. Someone had left them a message, in a prominent location that they would not miss, written in Greenlandic on an old and discarded pemmican can.

It read: “The Germans are robbing the Danes of all their meat, but the King is safe. There is no more kerosene in the store.”

The expedition ended shortly thereafter.

Taissumani is an occasional column that recalls events of historical interest. Kenn Harper is a historian and writer who lived in the Arctic for over 50 years. He is the author of Give Me Winter, Give Me Dogs: Knud Rasmussen and the Fifth Thule Expedition, and Thou Shalt Do No Murder, among other books. Feedback? Send your comments and questions to [email protected].

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.