NWT’s conservation work generally ‘on track,’ audit finds

The NWT government is getting much of its work right on protected and conserved areas, an audit by the federal auditor general’s office concludes.

Hiring processes could be better, the way areas are co-managed should be carefully monitored and the GNWT can do more on specific candidate areas for future protection, a report published on Friday found.

But the report’s broad conclusion was that the territory had “laid the foundation to advance its land conservation priorities,” particularly in terms of collaborating to attract funding for Indigenous-led conservation.

A $375-million injection of public and private cash agreed by more than 20 Indigenous governments last year – known as the Northwest Territories Our Land for the Future Agreement, using a funding model called Project Finance for Permanence – is the prime example of this.

“In a pivotal first step, the government had worked collaboratively with Indigenous governments to successfully conclude the Northwest Territories Project Finance for Permanence, which created a long-term financing model for Indigenous-led conservation activities,” the new report states.

“This will serve as an important support for Indigenous governments in their efforts to steward the land.”

Progress has been more limited around the planning and decision-making needed to establish more protected areas, the auditor general’s office stated, and the GNWT’s approach to its share of managing the conservation network as a whole is “still in development.”

Even so, while the GNWT has faced some damning reports from the auditor general’s office in recent years, this was not one of them.

The GNWT set three conservation-related priorities in a 2023-28 work plan then made progress on all of them, Friday’s report found. Auditors labelled each “on track.”

The audit focused specifically on those three priorities and how the territory worked toward “protecting biodiversity and ecological integrity as well as sustaining cultural practices and economic development for current and future generations through the conservation network.”

Only three recommendations were made. Overall, the auditors found the territory “has made progress to better protect and conserve environmentally important land and inland water and now needs to build on that foundation.”

The three recommendations are:

• closely monitor the implementation of co-managed protected areas;
• increase Indigenous representation in hiring processes; and
• develop a plan of action and timelines to expand the conservation network in the Dınàgà Wek’èhodì and Dehcho regions.

The auditors also noted the Department of Environment and Climate Change had no permanent funding for its own activities to manage protected areas, even though Indigenous-led efforts already have that funding secured.

“The Northwest Territories has already protected nearly 16 percent of its land and inland water, which compares favourably to the approximate 14 percent across all of Canada,” a news release accompanying the report quoted Jerry V DeMarco as saying. DeMarco is the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development at the auditor general’s office.

“With long-term funding now in place to support Indigenous-led conservation, it is important that the territorial government prioritize achieving its other objectives to further expand the conservation network.”

The territorial government said it agreed with all three recommendations.

The GNWT said it will establish in the next year “processes to assess the progress of implementation, lessons learned, and the health of partnerships associated with Territorial Protected Areas.”

The report spends some time analyzing work toward creating Dınàgà Wek’èhodì, a candidate protected area along the North Arm of Great Slave Lake.

“Although a partially drafted agreement exists, we found that negotiations had stalled over the distribution of seats allocated to each Indigenous government in the management board. Parties had not met collectively since late 2022 to discuss the multi-party establishment agreement or the governance structure,” the report stated.

“We found that the Indigenous governments had signalled to Environment and Climate Change that the department should take the lead on finding a path forward. Although representatives from Environment and Climate Change had held bilateral discussions on other topics with the parties since then, an agreement regarding seat an agreement regarding seat allocation had not yet been reached by the end of our audit period.”

Regarding four candidate protected areas in the Dehcho – Sambaa K’e, Ka’a’gee Tu, Łue Túé Sųlái, and Ejié Túé Ndáde – the report found various governments had given these areas a back seat while concluding Project Finance for Permanence negotiations.

While the auditor general’s office found that was a “reasonable approach,” it recommended the GNWT now “collaborate with Indigenous governments representing Dınàgà Wek’èhodì and the four Dehcho region candidate areas to develop a plan of action and timelines to advance the decision‑making process for each candidate area.”

The auditor general’s office said that should happen within a year. The GNWT agreed.

Hiring was also a concern.

“We found that in the five years since the establishment of territorial protected areas, members of the management boards” – the groups tasked with managing each area – “were rarely involved in the planning and carrying out of hiring processes” related to those areas, the auditors stated.

“Involvement of the management boards is integral to support employment opportunities for the implicated Indigenous communities.”

In 2023, some improvements were made to these processes, the audit found.

“Although the availability of board members to participate in these processes did not always align with the timing of them, it is essential for the relationship between the government and its Indigenous partners – and for the fulfillment of the government’s commitments to equity – to provide opportunities to include them,” the report stated.

The auditor general’s office did not include responses from Indigenous governments but did travel to Indigenous lands to speak with representatives of those governments involved, staff stated.

“Each shared with us their perspectives and experiences with the Government of the Northwest Territories with respect to land protection and conservation,” the report added.

Correction: May 23, 2025 – 16:50 MT. This report initially stated the auditor general’s office had recommended the GNWT find permanent funding for its own conservation operations. While the auditors noted the absence of that funding and expressed concern about it, they made no formal recommendation.