Representatives of the NWT government, Tłı̨chǫ Government and Yellowknives Dene First Nation have signed a memorandum of understanding to advance the Arctic Economic and Security Corridor.
A signing ceremony was held at the Roundup mining conference in Vancouver on Monday. The document was made available on Tuesday, after this article was first published.
YKDFN and the Tłı̨chǫ Government had already signed an agreement in November that committed them to collaborating on the corridor – a proposed highway from the NWT to a Nunavut deepwater port, which has made the federal Major Projects Office’s second-tier list.
More: A guide to the Arctic Economic & Security Corridor’s future
The corridor isn’t currently funded but, announcing Monday’s signing, YKDFN’s Det’on Cho economic development wing said the highway project would “support employment and skills training and has the potential to reshape transportation in the North.”
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If it goes ahead, the corridor is expected to come with a price tag into the billions of dollars. Advocates in the NWT initially wanted the corridor to open up resource development northeast of Yellowknife, though it is now also presented as an Arctic sovereignty investment given the absence of any other highway like it.
The GNWT joining the team advancing the corridor is not a surprise. The territorial government has, in effect, already been on that team for years, making the Monday agreement symbolic rather than transformative in some respects.
That said, the memorandum signed on Monday suggests priority will be given to Indigenous leadership for the corridor, which – if borne out – would be a change from many of the NWT’s previous infrastructure projects.
More cash for participation
Also on Monday, the GNWT said it was doubling its annual contribution to a fund that helps Indigenous governments participate in land and resource management processes.
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The Interim Resource Management Assistance program is mostly federally funded but a quarter of the cash comes from the GNWT.
Last year, the total fund was about $1.7 million and the GNWT’s share was just over $400,000. Now, the territory will provide $827,500.
Whether the federal share will also increase was not immediately clear. The GNWT has been asking Ottawa to put more money into the fund, which the CBC reported is routinely maxed out.
The GNWT’s decision to double its share follows Frame Lake MLA Julian Morse using a December committee meeting to ask if the territory had considered doing that. At the time, GNWT representatives said they were concerned about the impact on government spending if they did so.
In a Monday news release, the territory said the extra cash was designed to help meet “strong demand” for the program, “which routinely reaches full allocation due to the program’s role in enabling northern Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations, in unsettled regions, to engage effectively in key processes related to land use, environmental protection, and resource development.”
