People in the N.W.T. have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to various scams in recent years, and 2021 saw the biggest losses. 

Nunavut RCMP Cpl. George Henrie told CBC News because the case is still under investigation, no further details will be released. 

Tony Green, a deeply respected elder from Paulatuk, N.W.T., is being remembered for the extraordinary depth of his traditional knowledge and his dedication to protecting the land.

The Yukon and federal governments have signed off on a deal that will provide universal access to birth control and diabetes medications for Yukoners.

“We’re cold,” said Edward Tapardjuk Sr., during an interview with Nunatsiaq News on Thursday morning.

He said his family’s three-bedroom public housing unit on the southeast side of Igloolik was without heat overnight Wednesday into Thursday afternoon, as the temperature outside dipped to -19 C.

“I tried turning the heat back on last night and there was a huge spark on the furnace and we have not had heat since,” Tapardjuk said.

“I’ve requested to move out of the house for a while now because it’s not safe.”

It’s not the first time his family’s home went cold this winter. A few weeks ago, the furnace was out for three days.

“The heat has gone out just about every week since December,” he said.

However, an unreliable furnace is not the family’s only issue with the house.

There’s the electrical system that “crackles,” a broken door frame that lets in cold air, a toilet off its moorings, a window broken by a neighbour that was patched up three years ago with wood and a garbage bag, and damaged pilings that caused the floor to tilt.

Those are the structural issues Tapardjuk wants fixed, after what he says are years of fruitless complaints to the Igloolik Housing Authority.

Tapardjuk shared evidence of his correspondence with the housing authority dating back to October 2024 with Nunatsiaq News.

A crew works on the power lines next to Edward Tapardjuk’s home in Igloolik Thursday. (Photo courtesy of Edward Tapardjuk Sr.)

And there is also the matter of his $46,000 in rent arrears, according to his bill from the housing authority. Considering the state of the house, he believes he’s being overcharged.

Frustrated with the lack of maintenance on the home and questioning the $1,700 monthly rent he was charged by the housing authority, Tapardjuk said he stopped paying rent five years ago.

As a single parent caring for three sons, Tapardjuk said he had trouble balancing the demands of work and parenting.

He left his job with the local hunters and trappers organization due to stress in September. That led to the housing authority eventually lowering his rent to $675 three weeks ago, he said.

“It should still be a lot less than that because I can’t afford that,” he said.

Tapardjuk and his three sons, who are 16, 20 and 24, moved into the house seven years ago and some of the building’s problems were evident even then, he said.

“It was already in bad shape. It smelled pretty bad and the walls were filthy,” he said.

After viewing photos that showed the repairs needed in the Tapardjuk home on March 10, Donna Crooks, a spokesperson for Nunavut Housing Corp., replied to Nunatsiaq News on March 13 saying the repairs will be undertaken.

“(Nunavut Housing Corp.) is providing support to the Igloolik Housing Authority to resolve the issues that have been identified,” she said.

Crooks declined to comment on Tapardjuk’s tenancy and his rental agreement with the housing authority.

At about 1 p.m. Thursday, a crew including an electrician and an oil burner mechanic arrived to fix the furnace. The heat was back on by 2 p.m.

Otherwise, none of the repairs to the interior of the house or the piling underneath had yet been addressed, Tapardjuk said.

Michelle Wolf was charged with one count of assault after an incident at Sakku School in 2023. A Nunavut judge has acquitted her, saying she believes Wolf's actions were "reasonable" and for "corrective purposes."

Ryan Leef, who served a term as Yukon MP a decade ago, has been selected as the territory's Conservative candidate in the upcoming federal election.

It has been six months since the N.W.T. government introduced its revamped extended health benefits (EHB) program, which provides additional health coverage but also deductibles for some higher-income patients.

Canada’s plan to build an early warning system to protect the Arctic is being welcomed by some who work in and study the North. 

Yukon's coroner has called an inquest into the death of man who was shot and killed by an RCMP officer near the Whitehorse airport three years ago.

A new land-based healing program offered by Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation (LKFN) in Fort Simpson, N.W.T., is helping participants reconnect with nature, traditional skills, and themselves.

Though conditions are now improving, blizzards in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut have dumped piles of snow on several communities and hampered municipal services over the past week.

Joe Handley says he is stepping down as chair of Aurora College's board of governors as he and the NWT's education minister are "on different tracks."

In a news release Wednesday afternoon, territorial RCMP said they have charged Krystian Cogswell, 22, with murder, attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault.

RCMP named Krystian Cogswell as the suspect in the fatal Fort Providence shootings, saying he is charged with murder and attempted murder but remains at large.

The federal government announced more than $11 million for clean energy projects in Indigenous communities. Three NWT projects will receive $3.7 million.

Health officials in Nunavut have declared an outbreak of whooping cough in the Kivalliq community of Naujaat.

Nunatsiaq News has been nominated for a National Newspaper Award for its coverage of the 2024 Nunavut Quest dogsled race.

Coverage was compiled in a 20-page special edition, published July 5, 2024, and distributed with the weekly print edition. It offered readers day-by-day reports from the race in both English and Inuktitut, highlighted by numerous photos from the race.

What set it apart from typical news coverage was that all the stories and photos were produced by a team of six high school-aged people from Igloolik — Cadence Arnatsiaq, Kenneth-Owen Angilirq, Leonard Siusangark, Bernice Satuqsi, Dylan Kayotak and Riley Qamukaq.

In a project organized by Shanshan Tian, an educational consultant in Igloolik, the young correspondents’ work was sent each day from the race course to Nunatsiaq News.

The stories and photos were edited and published online throughout the six days of racing from Arctic Bay to Pond Inlet, which stretched from April 16 to 24, including one day of rest for the 10 mushers and their teams and another day lost due to poor weather.

Mushers and their dogsled teams race between Arctic Bay and Pond Inlet during the 2024 Nunavut Quest. (Photo by Dylan Kayotak, special to Nunatsiaq News)

Later, their work was translated to Inuktitut and published in the special section alongside English versions.

The nomination is in the category titled Special Topic: Journalism in a Language other than French or English.

Shanshan Tian, production co-ordinator Krista Klassen, production artist Andrea Gray, managing editor Corey Larocque and web editor Gord Howard are nominated for the work.

“We were truly grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the Igloolik youths on such an exciting project,” said Julia Roberts, publisher of Nunatsiaq News.

“It was a fantastic experience that allowed them to hone their journalism and photography skills while providing unmatched coverage of the 370-kilometre Nunavut Quest — a win-win situation for everyone involved.”

Also nominated in that category are two entries from Sing Tao, a Toronto-based Chinese newspaper — one for its investigation into the sale of fraudulent mooncakes at Asian food markets in Toronto, another for its reporting on problems encountered by immigration applicants from Hong Kong.

Nunatsiaq News and Sing Tao were also both nominated in that same category in 2024.

National Newspaper Awards organizers announced Tuesday that 83 individual journalists representing 22 publications are finalists this year, alongside nine team submissions from those publications.

The Globe and Mail received the most nominations, with 16, followed by the Toronto Star with 15 and La Presse in Montreal with 13.

Among the nominations:

• Tavia Grant of the Globe and Mail for her reporting on the Vatican’s unfulfilled promises to return cultural items to Indigenous communities in Canada;
• Tanya Talaga of the Globe and Mail for columns on residential school survivors, residential school denialism and the legacy of Murray Sinclair;
• Richie Assaly of the Toronto Star, for his stories on Canadian musicians, including Nunavik’s Elisapie, and their cultural significance.

National Newspaper Awards winners will be announced at a ceremony in Montreal on April 25.

The Yukon Party called on the governing Liberals to create a task force dedicated to reducing the administrative burden that doctors have to deal with. The minister of health says a forum dedicated to discuss the issue already exists.

The Government of the Northwest Territories is changing its carbon tax so that consumers will no longer pay. The change will be mean lower prices at the pump and on bills for propane heating. The territory will also end its offset payments effective July 1.

A longtime Yellowknife nurse said her profession needs its own collective agreement in the N.W.T. to address the current nursing shortage the territory is experiencing.

After an MLA called for NWT nurses to have a separate bargaining unit, their union called the proposal "problematic" but said it was not opposed in principle.

YWCA NWT says it will take over the Family Connections program, which supports expecting and new parents, from the Yellowknife Women's Society next month.

The Nunavik Youth Houses Association celebrated its 20th anniversary with the completion of a brand new youth centre in Kangiqsujuaq.

Nunavik Youth Houses Association director Tuniq Ningiuruvik says more funding and sponsors should come forward to help Nunavik create more youth houses. (Photo credit of Tuniq Ningiuruvik/Facebook)

Youth houses are “very important,” the association’s director general Tuniq Ningiuruvik said in an interview from his home in Quaqtaq.

The association was created by the Nunavut Regional Board of Health and Social Services to create youth houses and provide youth services across the region. 

“Youth don’t have a lot of places to go to. It is the arena and that’s about it,” Ningiuruvik said.

Youth houses are for children and teens between the ages of five and 19 who wish to do activities and hang out with friends, Ningiuruvik said.

Kangiqsujuaq hasn’t had a youth house since 2017 when a previous house, built in 2000, burned.

With $5.5 million from the Inuit Community Infrastructure Fund, the new youth centre promises a safe space for Nunavimmiut youth to do things such as on-the-land activities, games, outings, sports, and first-aid training.

“We have to think of the youth, especially in those smaller communities, who don’t have a lot going on and they tend to be doing things they should not be doing,” Ningiuruvik said.

He believes that these houses prevent vandalism, crime and drug abuse in the communities. 

The association intends to celebrate its 20th anniversary once the move into the Kangiqsujuaq house is complete and the new youth centre is up and running. That’s expected to take place by the end of the month.

There are 10 communities with active youth houses running in Nunavik. All of them have youth co-ordinators and staff who lead activities, he added.

The association’s goal is to train those younger employees to become community leaders themselves. The skills they acquire by organizing events and uniting the youth of their village help them become leaders.

“I want to see more youth becoming leaders,” Ningiuruvik said.

Four communities do not have active youth centres — Kuujjuaq, Kangiqsualujjuaq, Puvirnituq and Tasiujaq. 

Kuujjuaq is working on building a new youth centre, and a youth house association office is being built in Kangiqsualujjuaq, with construction to be completed by June, Ningiuruvik said.

Puvirnituq is also working on getting a new building, with construction expected to start this summer or next. 

Many of the youth houses also have aging infrastructure, including Salluit, Ivujivik, Quaqtaq, Tasiujaq and Kuujjuaraapik, with some of them being old nurse housing or churches from the 1970s. 

The Quaqtaq youth house is at risk of having water seep into it from the river.

“We were told we can use it until five years from now, we don’t have a lot of time,” Ningiuruvik said. 

Tasiujaq’s youth house closed due to asbestos, and Inukjuak’s has that problem as well, but remains open. 

The association is currently looking for more sponsors and funding to continue their efforts in building safe environments for Nunavik youth, Ningiuruvik said.

For many years, Jay Mitchell believed he was Métis — until a DNA test helped him find his true biological family in the Yukon, and prompted him to pick up and move to Whitehorse.

Nujaliah Iyerak remembers growing up in Igloolik and being fascinated by airplanes, but feeling that flying one and becoming a pilot was far out of reach.

Nujaliah Iyerak is all smiles on the “special day” he was able to take his wife Blandina Irqqarqsaq out on a flight for the first time. (Photo courtesy of Exchange International Corp.)

The closest he got to this dream was checking-in passengers and handling baggage as a representative for Canadian North in Igloolik.

That was until last year, when the Atik Mason Indigenous Pilot Pathway program, which brings flight school to pilots, expanded to Rankin Inlet.

“I just thought that being a pilot was just cool and when I heard about the program, I just applied,” Iyerak said in an interview.

“And then I got an email saying that I got accepted, and I just was lost for words.”

The 25-year-old began the program in Rankin Inlet in May 2024.

The Atik Mason Indigenous Pilot Pathway program began four years ago in Thompson, Man. It is fully funded by Exchange Income Corp., the company that’s in the process of buying Canadian North.

[“We wanted] to try the idea of bringing the program to the people, instead of people to the program, and it was very successful,” said Mike Pyle, CEO of Exchange Income Corp., of the program’s expansion to Rankin Inlet.

Pyle said his company pays for students’ schooling and accommodations, including a stipend. In addition to living arrangements, the program anticipates its participants’ other needs.

“If something comes up with family, we recognize it and we get them home,” said David White, executive vice-president of Exchange Income Corp.

“When it comes time for a major event, we often fly families in so that students are surrounded by their community, because we recognize that community piece is key.”

In the North, the flight training season is short. So Iyerak, funded through this program, opted to head south to Moncton, N.B., in October to expedite his studies.

Iyerak said he misses home but that his wife Blandina Irqqarqsaqq took a leave of absence from her work and came with him, which made the transition easier. Exchange Income Corp. pays for her to go to New Brunswick as well.

The Atik Mason Indigenous Pilot Pathway program started with 12 students in its first class. There are now 32 students per year combined at its three locations, including Rankin Inlet.

“We’ve got six students flying already and eight more that are about to fly, that are in the queue to start with our various airlines,” Pyle said.

“So we were up to 14 in four years. If we can keep that going, we’ll be able to have a significant piece of our staff be from the communities we service.”

Depending on how much flight time Iyerak can get in, he said he hopes to receive his commercial pilot’s licence by August. From there, he will likely fly medevac planes, but has his eye on flying commercial with Canadian North in the future.

“[Iyerak] is the perfect example of what we’re trying to achieve with the program,” Pyle said, adding that one of the greatest challenges in remote communities is the lack of opportunity.

“When [Iyerak] is sitting there flying the first medevac out of Igloolik, with someone he knows, that’s going to be the world’s best advertisement for, ‘You can be whatever you want to be.’

“Creating hope in remote communities is a huge part of what we’re trying to do here. Selfishly, we also want to build great pilots.”

André Fortin says four major issues for him are making sure gun regulations don’t harm Yukoners, housing, ensuring that the RCMP is properly funded, and healthcare.

A 30-year old man was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment for possessing cocaine for the purposes of trafficking in a Yellowknife case dating to 2021.

Organizers hope next week's Dehcho Economic Development Summit, in Fort Simpson, can give the region a "unified voice" in resource management and beyond.

A Yellowknife complex is receiving $18.5 million in federal cash for renovations and Fort Smith will get $2.6 million to help spur construction of new homes.

RBC is bringing its Olympic talent identification program to Yellowknife in May, offering athletes aged 14-25 the chance to take a step toward the world stage.

Canada's defence minister says challenges encountered with the Nanisivik project have shown the government that a better way forward is to make sure defence investments “benefit people and communities as well as the Armed Forces.”

Organized crime is becoming more prevalent in the Yukon, as networks from B.C. and Alberta are expanding into the territory, according to a law enforcement intelligence report.

David Eric Godfrey was last seen between 6 and 7 p.m. Sunday in the city's Porter Creek area. Police say they are concerned for the senior's well-being, because he was not wearing clothes suitable for cold weather and may not have shoes on.

An exploration company that was fined two years ago for mining infractions at a copper exploration site near Whitehorse is again at work in the same area — and some local residents are not happy about it.