Federal funding boss: ‘Money shouldn’t be issue’ for Arctic Corridor

A senior figure at the Canada Infrastructure Bank spoke about the proposed Arctic Corridor in such glowing terms that an NWT minister said she had been given “a lot of hope and a lot of excitement” for the project.

The corridor would create a year-round highway from the Yellowknife region to Nunavut’s Arctic coast, alongside power and telecoms connections.

Proponents say it will link a mineral-rich region of the NWT – the Slave Geological Province – to both an Arctic deepwater port and the south of Canada, while helping Arctic sovereignty as the first road connection between the two territories.

The corridor requires billions of dollars to go ahead. While it is on a second-tier list at the national Major Projects Office, so far it isn’t funded.

Yet at the Arctic 360 conference in Toronto last week, Hillary Thatcher – a managing director of investments at the Canada Infrastructure Bank – said “money shouldn’t be the issue” for the project.

The Canada Infrastructure Bank is a Crown corporation that works with private investors to funnel huge sums of money into large-scale projects. Thatcher leads the CIB’s Indigenous file.

“Money really shouldn’t be the issue,” she reiterated while appearing on a panel specifically about the Arctic Corridor.

“This project is going to bring a lot of wealth, not just to northerners. This is a nation-building project that brings wealth to Canada, and it brings sovereignty and security to our nation by having such a large asset in the Arctic.”

Thatcher had earlier stressed that the CIB needs to see a viable business case – one that shows the corridor can generate revenue to pay back a loan from the infrastructure bank, such as through road tolls or fees for military vessels refuelling at its deepwater port in Grays Bay.

But she went on to say the CIB must step in and take risks that private investors would never shoulder on their own.

“The Slave Geological Province is huge. It’s a massive pot of wealth, but it can’t be accessed without infrastructure,” she said.

“Part of the role of the bank is not just to get secured returns. It’s about filling gaps. The gap that we’re seeing on this project is the chicken and egg. Is the mining company going to fully commit to a toll on the road or not? They’re not if they don’t see that the road’s being built. They can’t fully commit to developing their mine until they start seeing the infrastructure.

“The risk that the CIB can take, which no other private lender will take, is the ‘build it and they will come’ model.”

‘Important for future of NWT’

Those words, from a federal executive empowered to pull funding levers, left NWT industry minister Caitlin Cleveland visibly delighted.

“Those are conversations I literally want to take to the bank,” Cleveland said of the panel, for which she had been in the audience.

“Money is no issue,” she said, repeating a version of Thatcher’s words. “To build these projects, money should not be an issue. And to me, that’s great, then let’s move forward. I’m really excited to report back to my cabinet colleagues about what was heard, the conversations that were had.

“We will continue having those very important conversations with the Canada Infrastructure Bank, with the Major Projects Office, with the Government of Canada, because clearly there’s a lot of belief in these projects.”

Thatcher did include some nuance over the course of the hour-long panel.

For example, she discussed the CIB’s need to establish the extent to which the Arctic Corridor’s business case will rely on the military using it, and the extent to which mining will underpin its economics.

“Conversations are under way with the Department of National Defence,” she said, “to figure out: is this a project that’s of interest?”

The CIB has provided $3 million to the project’s Nunavut proponents, the West Kitikmeot Resources Corp, to help prepare that business case and undertake some environmental work. (Caribou, for example, will be a key issue. The corridor’s proposed route crosses the heart of some herds’ migratory paths and calving grounds.)

Thatcher added she had been thrilled to see Indigenous governments in the NWT recently team up to lead the corridor project on that side of the Nunavut border.

“We know that’s where a lot of the more active and more advanced mining activities are happening, and that’s where a lot more revenue is going to come from,” she said.

“They’re going to need to raise capital,” Thatcher added.

“The Government of Canada is unlikely to grant funds for the whole thing. It’s possible but, you know, our job is to figure out: how do we reduce the reliance on grants and bring in private capital to make this a viable economic project?”

From November 2025: A guide to the Arctic Corridor’s future

Cleveland said the conversation at Arctic 360 showed the level of support for the Arctic Corridor across the country.

“That’s so important right now for the Arctic,” the minister said.

“This infrastructure is important not just for us. It’s important for our children and grandchildren. It’s important for the future of the Northwest Territories. We need to keep moving forward.”

MLAs worry for Mackenzie Valley Highway

While the Arctic Corridor got its own session, the NWT government’s two other pet major infrastructure projects – the Taltson hydro expansion and the Mackenzie Valley Highway – received far less play at Arctic 360. Most of the conference focused on diplomacy and defence, reflecting the current geopolitical atmosphere.

Late last week, three NWT MLAs issued a joint news release calling for the federal commitment to the Mackenzie Valley Highway to be immediately stepped up.

If built, the highway would connect communities in the Sahtu region to the rest of Canada. It would make resupplying those communities far cheaper and, local leaders say, open up economic opportunities.

“With only 18 months remaining in the current territorial government’s mandate, immediate federal commitment is required to move the Mackenzie Valley Highway from planning to construction,” MLAs George Nerysoo, Danny McNeely and Shane Thompson stated.

“Decades of consultation and assessment have positioned the project to proceed. Further delays risk setting the project back years.

“Federal and territorial governments must act now to secure funding and deliver this nation‑building infrastructure.”

Nerysoo, the Mackenzie Delta MLA, also attended Arctic 360.

At the close of the conference’s second day, where the Arctic Corridor had been a highlight, Nerysoo said there “wasn’t as much emphasis on the Mackenzie Valley Highway as I’d like to have seen or heard.”

“But it is alive. It’s going well,” he said. “We know the Indigenous governments are in favour of it.”

In recent months, officials say, First Nations who previously expressed skepticism about the Mackenzie Valley Highway’s route have taken a more positive approach to figuring out an alignment they can approve.

Paul Gruner, the Tłı̨chǫ Investment Corporation’s chief executive, said at the same conference that Indigenous governments were now more generally “coalescing” over projects in a way they previously hadn’t.

“We’ve been followers too long, and now it’s time to be proponents of these bigger projects,” Nerysoo told Cabin Radio.

“We’ve been going through the Yukon for about 50 years now, and it’s time to go down the valley and connect all our communities … keep our money that we pour into the Yukon on a monthly basis. We can build the economy of the Northwest Territories,” he said of the Mackenzie Valley Highway.

“We have to make it a reality right now. We’re not making a big fight over it. We have to.”