How NWT ministers say they’ll advance critical minerals this year

With the Northwest Territories economy “at a transition point,” two of the territory’s ministers say they are preparing for the future.

With the closure of the NWT’s three diamond mines on the horizon and the territory’s gross domestic product slowly declining, leaders are looking to critical minerals and other opportunities to diversify the economy.

Industry minister Caitlin Cleveland and Caroline Wawzonek, the minister responsible for strategic infrastructure, energy and supply chains, were among northern leaders who travelled to Vancouver last month for the Association for Mineral Exploration Roundup conference.

Some people have criticized the cost of sending delegates to the conference alongside the staging of flashy announcements and events. NNSL reported the NWT government spent more than $260,000 on the 2025 event.

Cleveland, however, told Cabin Radio it’s important that territorial and Indigenous leaders meet industry executives and other players from across Canada in person to “let them know what opportunities are available in the North.”

“If we’re not there, we’re not at these shows, we’re not speaking to investors and we’re not harnessing the opportunity that sits in front of us and also letting investors, letting these companies know that we’re supportive but that we have a particular way of doing business in the Northwest Territories,” Cleveland said.

“As much as we may have gotten a little more accustomed to the Zoom world,” Wawzonek added, “there’s a value still in relationship building and face-to-face when you’re trying to sell yourself and explain who you are and explain how we govern ourselves.”

Increasing collaboration

Ahead of AME Roundup, three NWT business groups issued an open letter calling for collaboration to “diversify, stabilize, and shift from long-term dependence toward becoming a net contributor to Canada.”

Cleveland said she has noticed a shift among territories and provinces in response to the changing global landscape with the Committee on Internal Trade – a collection of provincial and territorial ministers with trade responsibilities – turning into more of a working group.

Wawzonek said she has also seen a move toward the signing of more memorandums of understanding in recent years – which she described as creating “the structures through which government officials get work done” – rather than just committing to study issues.

“I actually do find them more helpful and the more specific they are, the better,” she said.

“It gives the machinery of government something to chew on.”

In Vancouver, ministers from the territories and western provinces signed an agreement to develop a shared critical minerals strategy.

Cleveland said that strategy is all about coordination.

She explained that while many of the resources on Canada’s critical minerals list can be found in the NWT, they are “locked in place” without the supply chains and infrastructure to support mining.

“We have the rocks and the rest of the country has those next pieces that really need to be fleshed out,” she said, as far as “where does the stuff get processed, where does it get refined, where does it go at the end of the day?”

Critical minerals projects being planned in the NWT include Vital Metals’ Nechalacho mine; Fortune Minerals’ cobalt, gold, bismuth and copper Nico project; Pine Point Mining’s proposed zinc and lead mine; and Norzinc’s zinc, silver and lead Prairie Creek project.

Meeting the moment

The shared critical minerals strategy is expected to be released by the June 2026 energy and mining ministers’ conference, set to take place in Yellowknife with Cleveland and Wawzonek as co-chairs.

The ministers said that will give them more of a role in guiding the agenda, and they are working to “meet the moment” and position Canada and the NWT as global players.

Wawzonek said the territory is looking for specific commitments to come out of the meeting.

“We’re at a point in the territory and a transition point where we are going to see a difference in our economy,” Cleveland said.

“It is incredibly important that we are diversifying our GDP right now as to where that comes from, and it’s really reliant on all these pieces that we’re working so hard to bring together.”

Cleveland said that work includes forming supply chains, working with industry and other jurisdictions, identifying and addressing barriers, and pursuing large infrastructure projects.

Some First Nations and environmental groups have raised concerns about the push to fast-track infrastructure and energy projects across Canada.

In the NWT, some researchers and environmental advocates have pointed to Giant Mine as a cautionary tale amid calls to reduce red tape and roll back environmental laws.

Cleveland said leaders and industry expect any development in the territory to be sustainable and responsible.

“We all go fishing, we all go swimming in the lakes just like our neighbours do, and we don’t expect for that to change,” she said.

The ministers said having the conference in the NWT will give ministers from elsewhere in Canada a chance to see first-hand how the North differs from the provinces – and increase support for the territory.

“It’s one thing for us to say it’s different up here,” said Cleveland, “but if people feel it, they see it, it resonates different.”