Délı̨nę wants winter road moved away from Great Bear Lake

The Délı̨nę Got’ı̨nę Government wants the route of the community’s winter road changed so it no longer runs across Great Bear Lake.

In a letter to the NWT government this month, Délı̨nę’s Ɂekw’ahtı̨dǝ́ or leader, Danny Gaudet, said the community had requested a new route for years as climate change is making the existing route unstable.

“The residents and leadership of Délınę̨ have deep, long-standing concerns that this route is becoming increasingly unsafe,” he wrote.

“Fundamentally, it puts at risk the environmental well-being of Great Bear Lake, and the economic, social, and cultural livelihoods and lifeways of our people.”

Gaudet told Cabin Radio a fuel tanker had previously gone partway through the ice in an area that holds many of the fish on which the community depends.

“We call it the Délınę̨ fishery,” he said.

“We’re quite concerned that one day we might lose a tanker of fuel in there, and we’re sure it will have a major impact on the fish.

“We keep reminding the government that we’d like to have that road off the ice. We know it takes time, but we’ve been asking for 20 years now, and we haven’t had any success.”

‘Getting tougher to do’

Délınę̨ has no year-round road access to the rest of the territory. Anything not brought in on the winter road must come in by air.

The winter road, which ordinarily opens in January, follows the Great Bear River for much of the way before connecting to the larger Mackenzie Valley winter road at its western end. At the eastern end, it crosses Great Bear Lake for about five kilometres to reach Délınę̨.

The community has begun work to explore the possibility of installing a run-of-the-river hydro facility on Great Bear River. Gaudet says changing the winter road’s route is also an opportunity to build a road to the prospective hydro site.

He also argues a route over land, rather than the lake, could open earlier than mid-January each season.

“It would allow for larger trucks to come in earlier. Right now, we scramble for about a month and a half to get all of our trucks in so we resupply the entire community with fuel, groceries, lumber and whatever else is required,” he said.

“We cram that into a month and a half and it’s getting tougher to do because the community is growing, right? The demand for supplies is increasing. So we certainly need to figure out how we get this road off the ice.”

Approached for comment last week, the NWT’s Department of Infrastructure stated by email: “The Department of Infrastructure is in the process of responding to the Délı̨nę Got’ı̨nę Government’s letter of December 10, 2025. Once a response has been issued, we will be in a position to comment publicly.”