In South Slave, Taltson expansion shines bright like a diamond

Indigenous partners in the Taltson hydro expansion want the project to be the South Slave’s answer to what diamond mines did for the Tłı̨chǫ, MLAs heard on Friday.

Jake Heron of the NWT Métis Nation, speaking at a public briefing in Yellowknife, said an expansion of the Taltson hydro plant is “probably the single largest proposed project that Indigenous groups will ultimately be in charge of.”

The NWT Métis Nation is part of a working group to advance the project involving multiple Indigenous governments and the GNWT.

The expansion has been discussed for decades in several incarnations. In its current form, the project would add 60 megawatts of capacity to the existing 22-megawatt Taltson facility near Fort Smith and connect it to the North Slave’s Snare hydro system through a submarine cable across Great Slave Lake.

If built, the combined grid would serve 11 communities and more than 70 percent of the NWT’s population. The territorial government is targeting a construction decision by 2028 and power flowing by 2033 or 2034.

But Heron, who has been involved in Taltson-related projects dating back to the Dezé Energy Corporation era roughly two decades ago, told MLAs the most important change this time is who would own it.

Under the earlier Dezé model, ownership was split three ways between the Akaitcho, the Métis and the territorial government. This time, Heron said, “the ownership will belong to the Indigenous parties.”

‘We watched the money’

Indigenous governments partnered with the GNWT under a memorandum of understanding include the Deninu Kųę́ First Nation, Łútsël K’é Dene First Nation, NWT Métis Nation (representing the Fort Resolution Métis Council, Hay River Métis Government Council and the Fort Smith Métis Council), Yellowknives Dene First Nation and Salt River First Nation.

The Salt River First Nation had previously withdrawn from the partnership but has since re-engaged and is now an active member at the table, Heron told MLAs.

Heron drew an explicit comparison to the Tłı̨chǫ, whose proximity to diamond mines and resulting agreements delivered long-term economic returns.

“I’ve watched them. I’ve watched the money that they’ve spent on their kids getting educated,” Heron said. “On a per-capita basis, my understanding is there are more university graduates from the Tłı̨chǫ Nation than any other group in the Northwest Territories. Why? Because they’re able to take advantage of the diamond mines and the resources that they got.”

For the South Slave, he argued, the equivalent opportunity is Taltson.

“From the diamond mines, billions of dollars have been spent in the North,” said Heron. “I would be very, very surprised if a billion dollars of that might have come to the people in Fort Smith, Hay River or Fort Resolution.”

He said Indigenous partners are not approaching the project naively.

“We have reached a consensus amongst ourselves – or at least the leadership has – that we want this project to move forward as best we can,” he said.

“We can talk about the economics of it. We can talk about whether or not it’s really risk-free but, at the end of the day, part of the risk aspect is that we say we’re not going to mortgage our kids’ future. It has to be able to stand on its own.”

Chicken and egg

NWT major projects minister Caroline Wawzonek, leading the briefing alongside Heron and GNWT officials, acknowledged the project’s viability hinges on finding customers to buy the power. Only then might funders like the federal government be convinced to release the billions of dollars needed to go ahead.

Residents of the North Slave may be customers, but the real customers Wawzonek needs are mining projects prepared to commit large sums to power purchases.

A business case developed a few years ago found the project would need something equivalent to three small mines buying in, the minister said. She suggested those could include the proposed reopening of Pine Point, which is moving toward a final investment decision, alongside gold and lithium projects. (Critics have said that’s wishful thinking and a firm customer base doesn’t exist.)

Even if mining projects do show interest, Wawzonek said runs into the same problem all the time.

“I get the question of: when can you have the power ready for me?” she said, describing conversations with mining proponents. “I’m like: when are you going to buy the power? And we wind up in this conversation.”

She said the situation recalls a dynamic that played out when diamond mines wanted a road and power line built to the North Slave but were unwilling to commit to buying power before the infrastructure existed. “We played chicken and egg, quite frankly, on this,” said the minister. And we don’t have a road. We don’t have power.”

Wawzonek pointed to the Department of National Defence’s planned investment in Yellowknife as a potential game-changer, describing a federal government buyer as far more certain than mining companies that have not yet made final investment decisions.

“What is so exciting when you get a procurement notice from the Department of National Defence talking about massive requirements in the city of Yellowknife is that that is going to come with some significant energy requirements,” she said, “and the federal government as a potential tenant is a pretty certain buyer.”

Legacy addressed in parallel

Andrew Stewart, the GNWT’s director of strategic energy initiatives, said a steering committee agreed on a preferred route in 2024: approximately 160 km of overland transmission to the south end of Great Slave Lake, east of Fort Resolution, then a submarine cable across the lake into the Yellowknife area.

Routing on the north side – where exactly the cable would land, where a substation would go, and how to connect back to Yellowknife’s existing Jackfish facility – still needs to be determined.

One of the most sensitive areas of work involves the legacy of the original Taltson dam, built in the 1960s to power the Pine Point mine.

Communities in the watershed have long spoken about its impacts, Stewart said, and a report on the subject was compiled in 2023. Indigenous partners agreed in April 2025 to pursue legacy claims on a parallel track rather than holding up the broader project.

Heron said the legacy issue “has been a real challenge because it has had a dramatic impact on some people” but the parallel process is working.

‘If Snare hydro dries up, too bad’

Yellowknife North MLA Shauna Morgan asked what would happen if the project simply did not proceed, leaving communities with the status quo.

Wawzonek pointed to the previous night’s four-hour power outage in Yellowknife and ongoing diesel generation in the South Slave, where the existing Taltson plant has been offline for surge tank repairs.

“We will all keep burning diesel as our redundancy,” Wawzonek said. “Every time there’s a problem in that community, you fire up the diesel generators. That’s the fallback.

“Even with this, I’m not suggesting diesel disappear from the Northwest Territories, but at least you have a system that starts to allow power to be moved and shared to the places where it is required.”

She said she is constantly asking her team about alternatives like connecting to Alberta or Saskatchewan’s grids, micro-nuclear reactors or more investment in community-level renewables. Connecting to a southern grid would cost roughly $2 million per kilometre, she said, and micro-nuclear technology may not be commercially viable until some years after Taltson could be online.

If the project is delayed long enough, Wawzonek said, commercial alternatives will overtake it.

Heron put it more bluntly. He said if the expansion to the North Slave does not happen, the Indigenous owners of the Taltson resource would look at selling power south to Alberta instead.

“This is our land. This is our resources,” he said. “If you don’t want to capitalize on it, well, you can be having four-hour outages every second week. If the Snare hydro dries up, too bad, you know?”