Audit sets out how NWT’s environmental regulatory system can improve

The latest audit of the NWT’s environmental regulatory system has found progress in many areas but says some challenges and gaps persist.

The NWT government released the nearly 300-page 2025 environmental audit on Tuesday, completed by consultants ERM International Group.

In a press release, the territory highlighted improvements made to the regulatory system since the last audit was conducted in 2020, while acknowledging some continuing challenges.

“This audit confirms that our regulatory system is moving in the right direction,” stated environment minister Jay Macdonald. “We remain focused on working with Indigenous governments and regulatory partners to make informed, balanced, and evidence-based decisions that protect the land, water, and wildlife of the Northwest Territories.”

The 2025 audit focused on four key areas: the availability and use of barren-ground caribou trend information, effectiveness of cumulative impact monitoring, effectiveness of regulatory regimes in the Mackenzie Valley, and responses to the 2020 audit.

Auditors found good coverage of information across trends of interest for caribou, several advancements to cumulative impact monitoring and incremental positive changes to regulatory regimes.

Gaps and issues highlighted regarding caribou trend information included the need for information to evaluate the consequences of environmentally or culturally significant trends, as well as a disconnect between the amount of information collected by the GNWT and academic studies – and the accessibility of that information.

When it came to cumulative impact monitoring, the audit said persistent gaps were largely due to resource and capacity constraints.

The audit said information is most needed in areas with high development potential and highlighted a lack of standardized monitoring techniques tailored for cumulative impact monitoring usage, inconsistent collaborative efforts, and a need for improvements in data integration.

Persistent issues with regulatory regimes included insufficient capacity and inadequate resources to participate in the co-management system, as well as insufficient regulatory process to address social, cultural and economic concerns.

The audit also cited industry concerns with duplicative or costly approval processes for small-scale exploration and continued challenges with resource management in regions without settled land claims.

Finally, the audit found only eight of 40 recommendations from 2020 had received a response auditors considered “adequate,” while 17 recommendations were partially implemented and 15 remained outstanding.

The 2025 audit presented 38 recommendations, including 25 that are new, 12 carried over from the 2020 audit, and one partially implemented recommendation from the 2015 audit. Many of those recommendations were to the NWT government, though some focus on other agencies like regulatory boards.

The GNWT agreed to implement the majority of relevant recommendations over the next five years.

The territory said it agreed with the intent of a recommendation to support and enable caribou monitoring traditional knowledge, particularly for Indigenous governments and organizations lacking capacity and funding. The GNWT said it was not able to commit to providing additional financial support, but would help to identify external funding.

The NWT government partially agreed to a recommendation to prioritize trend analysis of climate change influences on habitat quality and use, seasonal habitat and range use, and parasites and disease in targeted barren-ground caribou herds.

The territory said it did not have the resources to commit to other recommended areas of trend analysis, including community food security, which the audit had particularly recommended prioritizing.

The NWT government disagreed with two of the audit’s new recommendations for 2025 and four recommendations that were carried over from 2020.

The GNWT did not agree to coordinate and establish a consistent online information source with the federal government to provide annual updates on the status of land claim negotiations, including annual expenditures. The territory said it already maintains a public website about the status of negotiations.

The territorial government also disagreed with a recommendation to explore what would be involved in a transition of inspection and enforcement responsibilities from the GNWT to land and water boards.

Territorial legislation mandates that an environmental audit be conducted in the NWT every five years.