Election 2025 in the NWT: Rebecca Alty’s interview

Rebecca Alty is hoping to go from Yellowknife’s mayor to the next Member of Parliament for the Northwest Territories.

Born and raised in Yellowknife, the Liberals’ NWT candidate was a member of city council for two terms beginning in 2012 before she was elected mayor in 2018 and acclaimed for a second term in 2022.

Alty’s campaign profile highlights her previous roles in communications and community relations at the Diavik diamond mine, non-profit organizations and the NWT government.

More: The Liberal Party’s website

Alty said she is running for MP because she wants to address issues including housing, addictions and mental health, the economy and land claims.

“I love the Northwest Territories, and so really want to be able to continue to help at the federal level,” she said.

Alty said she would bring to the role her experience as an elected leader who has advocated for changes and support from the territorial and federal governments.

“I don’t have all the solutions but really listening to people, hearing the problems, and then working with residents as well as staff in Ottawa to really make stuff happen. So that’s what I’ve done on council, and look forward to doing that at the federal level.”

Alty is on unpaid leave from her role as mayor while she runs in the federal election. If elected, she will resign as mayor to become the territory’s MP.

Federal Election 2025: Cabin Radio’s election hub
Register to vote: Learn more from Elections Canada

Four candidates are running to be the NWT’s next MP in the April 28 election.

Rainbow Eyes (Angela Davidson) is running for the Green Party, Kimberly Fairman for the Conservative Party and Kelvin Kotchilea for the New Democratic Party. Cabin Radio is publishing interviews with all four this week.

Cabin Radio’s live radio debate featuring three of the four candidates will be broadcast from 8pm on Thursday, April 10. Fairman declined an invite to take part.

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This interview was recorded on April 2, 2025. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Emily Blake: First question, why do you believe that you are the best candidate to represent the Northwest Territories at the federal level?

Rebecca Alty: With my experience on council, now over 10 years, I’ve had a long time to work with residents here in Yellowknife and so being able to hear people’s problems and then work together with residents and staff on solutions. So definitely that elected official experience, I think, is really important.

I’ve also been the president of the Northwest Territories Association of Communities now going on three years. And so that was working with mayors and chiefs across the territory to lobby at the territorial level for changes. And I’ve been on the board of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities now for five years. And so that’s lobbying at the federal level.

A lot of that experience of hearing issues and working to get those changes at the territorial as well as at the federal level – a lot of that background experience, I think, will be beneficial for an MP in Ottawa.

Beyond that, is there anything specific that you’ve accomplished during your time as either mayor or as a councillor that you would point to?

Yeah, I think in regards to housing, one of the big things we did was updating our community plan in 2020 and then the zoning bylaw in March 2022. For years, we’ve been hearing the challenges with housing and we need more housing, and so we did update those pieces of legislation to encourage more housing.

Since then, we have seen that increase in housing. It is about what we call the missing middle, so getting those duplexes, fourplexes. Being able to have more housing in areas that already have services – so roads, water, sewer – also means that it’s less of a tax impact for residents because, as much as we hear about housing, we also hear about the cost of living. So really trying to find that solution that works for both problems.

Some people have been quite critical of some decisions the city has made in recent years – some recent ones have been concerns about communication around the evacuation. What would you say to potential constituents that haven’t been particularly happy with the city during your time as mayor?

Yeah, it’s always challenging. We’ve face some big things. We had Covid, of course we had the wildfires. The thing I did as an elected official was making sure that we were looking at the data, listening to the subject matter experts.

In the case of the wildfires, listening to the department of ENR [now ECC], who’s got the wildfire experts. To do an evacuation is a big decision, so really making sure that we’re listening to them. They were forecasting the fire would be here by the Friday, and so that was why the evacuation had to get called on the Wednesday to make sure that people had enough time to get out.

It is also about learning from those experiences. One of the important things after the wildfire was doing that after-action assessment at the city level to know what should have we done, what did we do, and what can we do to improve? We finished that in less than a year and then really worked to make sure those recommendations were in place, to make sure the future was better.

My leadership is listening to the experts, which is staff as well as residents. You know, when I think of public transit, residents are also the experts in that. But listening to the problems, looking at the data, working on solutions, and then also reviewing what happened and making changes going forward.

There’s quite a difference between the role of a mayor with the city and an MP for the whole of the Northwest Territories. How have you been preparing to make that transition if elected?

Hit the ground running, getting out to the communities. Last week I was in the South Slave and the Dehcho area. This coming week I will be in the Beaufort Delta, and then the Sahtu and then following up in Fort Simpson, Behchokọ̀, Whatì.

It is really about getting out to all the communities, hearing the issues and working on ways that we can work together. No government can do it all by themselves and so working with the territorial government, Indigenous governments, municipal governments on solutions to the problems, because we all have a little role to play in stuff.

It is about listening at the community level and, for the communities that I’m not able to get to in person, it has been setting up Zoom meetings. We’ve seen a good increase in communications over the past few years when it comes to internet. Being able to set up those Zoom meetings and those phone calls with residents and leadership where I can’t get to those communities in this 36-day period, trying to cover the territory of France, Spain and Portugal altogether.

Why do you want to be the Northwest Territories’ next MP?

The issues I care about: housing, addictions and mental health, the economy, land claims, which I think – and self-government agreements, really – will address a lot of those issues. There’s not a lot that I can do at the municipal level on those issues, and so being able to go to the federal level and work with residents across the Northwest Territories to address those.

I love Yellowknife, born and raised here, I love the Northwest Territories, and so really want to be able to continue to help at the federal level.

Why do you believe the Liberal Party is the best party to represent the territory at the federal level?

We’ve seen over the past number of years a lot of investments in the things that are issues, so in regards to housing. And really making sure that the funding was flowing right to Indigenous governments as well as community governments, and there was also, of course, some funding to the territorial government.

But yeah, I think the housing was a big thing that that drew me to the Liberal government, and being able to continue on that file. As well as when it comes to land claims and self-government agreements, you know the one that was ratified yesterday, and the next step, of course, would be at the the federal level, passing that legislation as well as the implementation.

Because it’s one thing to just get to the approval of the land claim, the self-government agreement. It’s another thing to then start the implementation, the capacity-building and transferring programs from either the federal or territorial level to the Indigenous government. So looking forward to working with residents on that, too.

There has been some commentary that the Liberal Party has moved further right on the political spectrum under Mark Carney and some concerns about his elimination of cabinet positions dedicated to people with disabilities, women and gender equality. What would your response be to people who are concerned about changes in the party?

One of the things that I’ve heard people are really excited about is Mark Carney’s financial and economic background. In this time right now that we’re facing with Trump tariffs and everything, I think he’ll be a really important leader to lead the country. I’d say he’s the mature adult in the room when it comes to some of these discussions.

When it comes to the cabinet, it was going to be a cabinet set up for just this smaller kind-of “keep the lights on” government. You can’t make announcements, you can’t do a lot of that business. So the focus was to really keep it lean and mean for just lights on.

After the election, we’ll see where it goes. My understanding is that it will probably be a cabinet that, going forward, is focused on having ministers with department responsibilities. But we’ll see post-election.

How do you see a Liberal government supporting people with disabilities and women and gender-diverse people?

It is looking at all the programs and putting the lens on it. And so we saw that on the housing front, there was priority for women as well as persons with disabilities. When it came to, for example, the rapid housing, there were specific carve-outs that units had to be made for women. So I think adding those conditions to programs is an important way.

Some northerners have been critical of Liberal government actions regarding firearms and carbon tax, that they have said ignored their input and have not been suited to the North’s unique context. How would you ensure northerners have a strong voice if the Liberals were to form government?

It is about advocating and really you’re knocking on those doors consistently to make sure that northerners are represented. And it is, sometimes, about those concessions, those trade-offs.

The carbon tax has now been removed for consumers. And in regards to climate change, one of the things that I think in lieu of the carbon tax is going to work better for the North is the Our Land for the Future program. So that’s the $375-million Indigenous-led conservation.

I think programs that are Indigenous-led, federally funded to address climate change is the way that we should be going. And it’s one of the ways that the last government finalized and was just waiting to get the budget approved, however, then there was the prorogation. So that’d be one of the first things I’d like to get done in the new government.

Another big issue in the North is our lack of infrastructure. For years the federal government has said it would support big infrastructure projects here like the Mackenzie Valley Highway and Taltson hydro expansion, but we haven’t seen a lot of movement. What should we expect from another Liberal government when it comes to supporting big infrastructure in the North?

Those projects, the Mackenzie Valley Highway and Taltson, the federal government has supported the studies. That’s the process the territorial government is in right now with the Indigenous governments. When those steps are complete and they’re ready to move on to the next step, the next big ask, that’s when the federal government can work with the territorial governments and Indigenous governments.

Whether that’s part of the trade infrastructure fund that Prime Minister Carney announced, or whether it’s through the Canada Infrastructure Bank, it is working with the territorial government, Indigenous governments, to find the right funding pot to move those projects forward.

On housing, can you expand further on how the federal Liberal government would support housing in the Northwest Territories?

There was a lot of funding in the last term, including the most recent announcement just a few weeks ago. So the dollars are now making it to the Indigenous governments and we’ll actually be seeing the homes on the ground shortly.

That was one of the things that when I was in the South Slave – last week, beginning of this week – they were really thankful for, is having that funding, and they’re really looking forward to doing the renovations and the new units. So that’s one thing.

The challenges were also the fires, the floods, units weren’t able to get up to the Sahtu. But I think it is important to continue to work with the modern treaty holders, getting those carve-outs for the North as well as the modern treaty holders, so that it is funding directly allocated to Indigenous governments as well as the North.

Another issue that’s increasing in communities here in the North is public safety and particularly crime related to the illicit drug trade. What are the Liberal Party’s plans to address those concerns?

Yeah and it’s a health crisis, public safety, and I think that healthy communities are safe communities. It is really that two-pronged approach. One is about the enforcement, and the other is about prevention, addictions recovery as well as those aftercare programs.

When it comes to enforcement, there were some changes in bail reform at the end of 2023 that began early 2024. The other thing is there are a lot of vacancies when it comes to RCMP, and so getting those positions filled. The federal government also supports local justice committees. For example, here in Yellowknife it’s the John Howard Society. I think providing the support to get all of the justice committees up and running, and being as effective as they can, will be really beneficial.

For one example, talking to somebody yesterday, there was an assault between two family members. The Crown looked at the case and thought it had potential to be diverted out of the court system and dealt with in alternative justice. For that to work, the person, the accused, has to admit guilt, and so they have to take ownership of it. And then they go to the committee, the offender, and then they work with the committee on addressing issues that will help reduce it in the future.

So for this case, they agreed to go to Aurora College, sign up and get their GED, to go to the Tree of Peace to do anger management, to do some addictions treatment. And so I think really getting those social justice committees up and going. It was the one thing I heard in the communities, too, was that people wanted people to be held accountable, but they wanted to really make sure they were getting the help and support they need, and to look outside of necessarily jails and whether it is those on-the-land programs, and so being able to put more power into the community and the leadership there.

But drugs is definitely a big one that we’re not going to just get rid of it through the enforcement. We do have to reduce the demand side, and that is working to get the support for addictions as well as those aftercare supports.

In Yellowknife, the federal government provided the funding for that transitional housing for addictions recovery program. Now, people will have a place to come back after recovery, hopefully get back on their feet.

In Fort Providence, one of the programs the federal government recently supported was a 62-bed women and children’s facility, transitional, so being able to support women and children after coming back from addictions treatment. These programs in the community, I think, are really important. It’s not going to just be one thing, we’ve really got to take that holistic look.

What are the Liberal Party’s plans when it comes to reconciliation?

One of the key things is the implementation and the settlement of land claims and self-government agreements. It’s one thing to get them settled, it’s another then to start supporting that implementation so that more and more services can be taken up by the Indigenous government.

I think that’s one of the key acts of reconciliation the federal government can do. And again, we just saw the vote in Norman Wells just yesterday. Look forward to passing that legislation if I’m elected, and then working with the Indigenous government to take on more and more of those responsibilities.

As well as the rest of the Indigenous governments across the Northwest Territories continuing to get those land claims over the finish line. Being able to support more days that negotiators are working with Indigenous governments is another thing that we can do to help speed that up.

Is there anything I haven’t asked you about that you think voters should know?

I think we covered a lot there. I appreciate the opportunity to chat. I do have more information – you know, still in the start of the campaign – and appreciate getting out to talk to people.

I don’t have all the solutions but really listening to people, hearing the problems, and then working with residents as well as staff in Ottawa to really make stuff happen. That’s what I’ve done on council and look forward to doing that at the federal level.