A major mine owner asked the GNWT for change. What happened next?

Burgundy, the owner of the Ekati diamond mine, sent the NWT’s premier a letter in September demanding more government support. Has anything changed?

“Environmental requirements are getting unnecessarily more onerous, government agencies are inflexible to change, and the burden placed on the asset is increasing. Should this trend continue, then Burgundy will need to revisit the viability of the Ekati asset and focus on growth elsewhere.”

That was the wording of a letter sent by Burgundy boss Kim Truter to Premier RJ Simpson – a letter that found its way briefly onto a public registry before being deleted.

The Ekati mine is a major employer in the NWT and a big driver of the territory’s economy. A direct and public appeal for help to the premier (even if the mine hadn’t intended for it to be public) was an unusual development.

Nearly half a year later, we followed up with Burgundy and the NWT government.

Burgundy had five major requests. What, if any, movement has taken place on any of those fronts?

“So far, Burgundy is pleased with the level of engagement it has received in response to the letter and subsequent discussions,” said Burgundy spokesperson Ariella Calin by email this week.

We asked the GNWT what it had decided to do in response to each of the issues Burgundy raised.

Burgundy asked for “alternate arrangements” to bring down the amount of money it must set aside annually for safe mine closure.

It doesn’t sound like there has been much of a shift on this front, at least from the NWT government’s perspective.

“The GNWT’s policy is to ensure that a company is secured for liabilities so that the costs are not absorbed by the taxpayers of the GNWT, should a company abandon a site or become insolvent,” the territorial government’s Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment told us this week.

“There is an existing process where proponents can request decreases in security through existing land and water board processes if they have satisfactorily completed reclamation work.

“The land and water boards, which manage setting security amounts under land use permits and water licences in the NWT, review and approve these requests.”

Burgundy wanted a review of the way royalties are valued before diamonds can be shipped out of the NWT.

The GNWT told us it had held a workshop with all of the territory’s active diamond mines a month after Burgundy sent its letter.

“During this session, we gained valuable insights into the challenges surrounding the current valuation process,” a spokesperson for ITI stated.

“We also identified opportunities within the valuation process that could benefit all parties while ensuring GNWT maintains its regulatory oversight and fiduciary responsibilities.”

ITI said it had held one-to-one meetings with each mine operator in subsequent months to discuss options that might help.

“One valuation option was best selected from the proposed options and was offered to all producing mines. Burgundy has accepted this option, which allows them to add up to 10 interim valuations to their annual schedule,” ITI stated.

“These interim valuations began in January 2025 with all costs borne by the producer.”

Burgundy worried that new mining regulations to be introduced by the GNWT might invalidate its existing impact benefit agreements, or IBAs – documents that set out the mine’s obligations to surrounding communities and peoples.

The new regulations are attached to the NWT’s Mineral Resources Act. Development of those regulations has been ongoing for years and they are seen as a big deal in terms of setting out how the territorial government handles the interests of industry, the environment and residents.

This week, work on the regulations was scrutinized by a committee of regular MLAs.

“Our goal is not to stop operations, not to stop prosperity in the Northwest Territories. The goal of this work, really, is to modernize the legislation so that at the end of the day, we are putting into our legislation what we expect in the territory,” said industry minister Caitlin Cleveland at a public briefing regarding the regulations.

“Some of the conversations we’re having are how to transition our existing mines into this new legislation to make sure that there is a path and a process to easily be able to do that,” she said.

Pamela Strand, the deputy minister of ITI, told MLAs that figuring out how to move active mines like Ekati from the old regulations to the new regulations is a challenge.

“We’re just trying to figure out, under the regulations, what those transitional provisions look like,” Strand said.

Cleveland said what happens to impact benefit agreements – the concern Burgundy raised – is a prime example of a difficulty the GNWT has to try to figure out before the new regulations can come into effect.

“One of the things we’re making sure of is that Indigenous governments and industry are both basically walking together into this new legislation, confidently and together,” the minister said.

A public engagement process on the regulations is due to begin this summer, and the current timeline is for the new regulations to come into force in the summer of 2027.

In a separate statement to Cabin Radio, ITI said staff “met with Ekati in November 2024 to discuss its concerns on existing IBAs and whether they would be directly accepted.”

The GNWT said it had also “identified all of the groups that Ekati might potentially need agreements with in consideration of their current agreements.”

“ITI most recently followed up this month to request any lingering concerns and is hoping to meet with Burgundy again soon,” the department stated.

Burgundy – which is not the lone voice in this regard – requested a smoother and quicker regulatory process in the NWT.

“The GNWT has had several discussions with Burgundy regarding these requests,” ITI stated.

“The regulatory regime in the Mackenzie Valley is established under land claims and the federal Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act. Therefore, the GNWT does not have authority to unilaterally make changes to the regulatory regime.

“The GNWT is participating in discussions with the land and water boards and Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations to find ways to streamline the process.”

At the Arctic360 northern affairs conference in Toronto earlier this month, industry minister Cleveland told attendees: “I’m not going to sit here and say our system is absolutely perfect. It isn’t.”

However, she said, the NWT’s regulatory system has to accommodate “a lot of different entities sitting at the table.”

“It’s very hard to bring a system together when pieces of that system are maintained by different people with different partners,” she said.

“Our system isn’t hard or impossible or anything like that. It’s different, because we have an expectation that our Indigenous governments sit at the table and our Indigenous governments have meaningful participation.”

Lastly, Burgundy asked for help reviewing federal water management and monitoring standards. The company seemed to be suggesting that the current standards came with too great a burden.

The GNWT told us its Department of Environment and Climate Change is “in discussion with Burgundy to better offer support where it can in approaching federal agencies regarding water management and monitoring standards.”

“From a GNWT perspective,” the territory stated, “ECC has had initial discussions with the Intergovernmental Council Secretariat and will be meeting with Indigenous governments to begin to develop amendments to the territorial water regulations.”

Overall, Burgundy spokesperson Calin wrote, “several files have made progress” since the company wrote its letter.

She said the most marked progress from the mine’s point of view had come in “the flexibility in the frequency of export valuations, the establishment of an environmental trust account to house all water licence [and] closure-related funds, and engagement on permitting processes.”

“While there remains much to do still, the progress is encouraging,” Calin wrote.

She added that diamond market conditions – which have been disrupted by the rise of cheaper lab-grown diamonds – “remain extremely challenging.”

“Burgundy remains committed to extending the life of the Ekati asset by primarily focusing on underground operations,” said Calin, “which have a limited impact on the environment and simplifies permitting processes for everyone.”