Carney ‘very different’ to Trudeau so far, NWT premier says

Mark Carney always “lights up a little bit” when he talks about Fort Smith, NWT Premier RJ Simpson says.

Simpson hopes an actual trip to Fort Smith – Carney’s visit on Wednesday was his first to his birthplace since becoming prime minister – will only cement his “affinity for this town” and help grow Carney’s awareness of the North, too.

“What I really want is for the North to be at the front of his mind,” Simpson told Cabin Radio as Carney departed for Inuvik, where he meets with Inuit leaders on Thursday.

“When I talk to him, he’s aware of the North – he’s aware of our issues, he’s aware of the projects we’re trying to advance. So I know it is in his mind. But the more he’s back here, the more he makes that connection. I think it’s better for us, because we’re just more ingrained in him.”

So far, Simpson said, Carney is leading a government that “feels very different” to the last Liberal minority government under Justin Trudeau.

“The prime minister has been very responsive. He has been holding a number of first ministers’ meetings – and I’ll say Prime Minister Trudeau at the end also began holding those meetings, but I get the sense it’s a different type of relationship that Prime Minister Carney is looking to forge,” Simpson said.

“He even talked about bringing other other issues to that table, the premiers’ table, to have discussions before decisions are made that affect all of the provinces and territories. That’s a refreshing change, that we’re being brought in at the front end.

“I know the previous government was very interested in using their financial capability to influence things that are generally provincial or territorial jurisdiction, and I don’t get the sense that’s where this prime minister is going. He’s focused on the broad national issues.”

Carney did not address reporters on Wednesday other than sitting for a short interview with APTN, in which he discussed national issues. He is expected to have more to say on Thursday.

But behind closed doors – and sometimes in front of the cameras – Fort Smith residents had an opportunity to speak with the prime minister and raise issues they care about.

“I got my chance to give him my little plug about how impactful funding would be coming into the community to support school food program,” said Emily Colucci, Fort Smith’s acting senior administrator, who was part of a photo op on Wednesday in which Carney briefly baked and made smoothies alongside Colucci, a couple of other adults and local children.

The event had been held to highlight food insecurity in the North. Colucci hopes that message lands, and she said she was told more supports were “on the table.”

“It goes far beyond just the strict nutrition from the food. It’s about body, mind and soul, really creating that time that children can be together and share a meal,” she said of school food programs.

“It’s having that added incentive for attendance, making sure children have their access to education and that isn’t being impacted by their inability or any sort of food shortages.”

She also told the prime minister that in Fort Smith, kids can’t stay at school for lunch so parents must come and pick them up.

“Introducing a lunch program or any sort of food program would add an increased time where our kids get to have recess, be outside and get more physical activity,” she said.

“That would be felt by every single child in our schools. I had the opportunity to share that with the prime minister, and I’m sure he hears it from more people than just me.”

Colucci and Fort Smith’s protective services director, Adam McNab, joined Carney in the afternoon at a briefing on wildfires in the NWT.

McNab, who helped lead Fort Smith’s response to the 2023 wildfires that forced a 37-day evacuation of the town, said topics discussed included local capacity, Firesmarting, wildland-urban interface firefighting – recently identified as a big gap in NWT response efforts – and how local fire departments can be more engaged with the territorial wildfire agency.

“He was definitely engaged. He was asking questions and he was taking notes, so I think he was open to hearing the conversation,” said McNab of Carney. “It was good to see.”

Simpson says the message to Carney regarding wildfires is that “the environment has changed.”

“We can’t resource our wildfire systems the way we did 10 years ago. We can’t operate the way we did 10 years ago,” the premier said.

“There’s talk about taking a more national approach, pooling resources, ensuring there’s even better lines of communication. Right now there are good lines of communication, but everything can always be improved.

“We’re a small population. We have a massive land mass and a lot of forest, and we’re not resourced to deal with it.”

Sometimes, requests of the prime minister came in the form of placards.

Connie Benwell turned up at Fort Smith’s community centre with a sign urging the prime minister to scrap Bill C-5, the recently passed legislation that promotes nation-building projects.

“It’s infringing on our treaty rights and not consulting with the Aboriginal people on major decisions,” Benwell told Cabin Radio. “We were here first. We were put here to look after our lands, look after our water. This is what we are doing and we will stand by it.”

According to APTN, asked about Benwell’s placard in an interview, Carney said: “It was nice for Connie to come out.”

Some Indigenous leaders across Canada have expressed concern that the effect of Bill C-5 will be to dispense with requirements for consultation and overrule existing mechanisms for the enforcement of treaty rights.

Simpson said the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, a piece of federal legislation that enshrines many of those treaty rights in the NWT, is not overruled by Bill C-5 as it isn’t mentioned in a list of federal acts that Carney’s nation-building legislation can supersede.

As a result, Simpson said, Bill C-5 “doesn’t change anything” for most of the NWT. The possible exception is the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, which is not governed by the MVRMA. Simpson said he is working to gain clarity on that, and it’s expected to be a topic when Carney meets Inuit leaders in Inuvik on Thursday.

Not every conversation with Carney on Wednesday involved a request.

Often, Carney seemed to want to talk about Joseph Burr Tyrrell School, where his father was once the principal. He brought it up with several residents.

Walking from the community centre to the Berro’s pizzeria for lunch, Carney spent a few minutes – surrounded by reporters and officials – chatting with a family about local landmarks, like the Radium King boat that occupies a downtown lot.

When he finally made it to lunch, that was a moment for Berro’s employee Poonam to savour.

She said she had only discovered that morning that he would be coming. It was her handwriting, on the large menu above the counter, that had replaced the name of the meat lover’s pizza with its new title, the “Carney-vore.”

“It was a real honour for me,” Poonam, originally from India and giving only her first name, said of serving Carney.

“In my country, I never felt like this there, because it’s not possible for a normal person to meet with the prime minister. I was really surprised. I clicked a picture with him. He shook hands with me.”

“I think they’d love for him to come back,” said Colucci of the town’s desire for more time with Carney. She said residents kept telling her they “just wish they had more of a chance to see and chat with him.”

People will remember the visit “for a long time,” she concluded.