Public asks for more border checks at public safety town hall

RCMP officers provided an update on policing efforts in the NWT during a town hall in Yellowknife while members of the public questioned why there is not a check stop at the NWT-Alberta border.

The follow up town hall was hosted by Yellowknife MLAs Robert Hawkins and Kieran Testart on Monday evening. Hawkins and Testart first held a town hall on public safety in February.

Many people in attendance questioned why there wasn’t a manned border stop on the highway from Alberta into the NWT to search every vehicle coming into the territory for drugs.

NWT RCMP Chief Superintendent Dyson Smith said because of rulings by the Supreme Court of Canada, police “have to have reasonable suspicion” to stop and search a vehicle. Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects people against unreasonable searches and seizures or arbitrary detention.

Smith asked community members to continue reporting criminal activity to the police because this can give them them the grounds they need to search a vehicle.

Attendees also said they want stronger screening at post offices to stop drugs coming in through the mail. Justice minister Jay Macdonald said only a mail inspector can do that and the NWT doesn’t have one.

Macdonald said he is trying to coordinate a “more unified approach” between the three territories for more public safety services from Ottawa.

For drugs coming into the communities on airplanes, Smith said it is an airline’s responsibility to ensure everything going onto their planes is not illegal or dangerous.

“There are mechanisms out there that if everybody could come to the table and work together, I think we’d have a shot at this,” said Smith.

‘It’s going to take a whole territory to fix this’

Other questions during the town hall touched on the need to address the root cause of addictions.

“This is not something any one minister, department, RCMP [officer] can solve. It’s going to take a whole territory to fix this and to bring it into something that we can manage much better,” said Macdonald.

Testart said the GNWT is looking for “holistic” approaches to the drug crisis and he wants to see more housing and health and social services staff accompanying police, and more funding for NGOs.

He said the push for more policing legislation like the NWT Trespass Act which MLAs passed earlier this year, and an impending Civil Forfeitures Act and Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act is coming from Indigenous communities and the MLAs that represent them.

Smith said the RCMP often interact with people who “didn’t get the help they needed somewhere along the way” like mental health or addiction supports.

“If there was an investment in a lot of these other programs, I would be the first one to say ‘take away some of the policing positions,'” said Smith.

When discussing the Trespass Act, one person in attendance questioned why the GNWT doesn’t invest money into NGOs instead of the RCMP. Hawkins said it is because NGOs don’t have the proper training to respond to those types of calls, so “they end up being escalated terribly.”

Testart, on the other hand, said NGOs are well equipped to respond to trespass calls because of their relationships with their clients, but if they need to go back repeatedly or the person is “belligerent or intoxicated,” the RCMP are needed to keep people safe.

Police operations and encampments

Another topic covered during the evening was the recent police operation on Yellowknife’s 57 Street, why it didn’t result in any charges and why someone with an outstanding warrant was released.

“I would rather swing and miss than not swing at all,” said Smith.

He said what police operations are successful at doing, even if they don’t result in charges, is disrupting activities and discouraging further drug trafficking.

Smith added that the person released with an outstanding warrant was wanted in a different province, and that province chose not to extend the warrant, so the NWT RCMP had to let them go.

Another attendee said the presence of armed officers in tactical gear in residential neighbourhoods “gives a sense of war and a sense that we need to be afraid of the police.”

Smith said he hopes residents feel safe when they see police conducting an operation because “those are the tactical, highly trained officers you want in your neighbourhood.”

“I wish we lived in a society where we didn’t have to be armed and tactical as we are now, but that’s not the reality,” said Smith.

Lastly, Testart and Hawkins questioned RCMP on what they’re doing to police encampments around Yellowknife.

Similar to a discussion at City Hall earlier this month, Smith said RCMP officers join municipal enforcement officers and the GNWT when they visit the encampments. He said the the RCMP is sharing data with its partners on the number of calls for service it receives related to encampments to help determine when an RCMP response is actually needed.

“It’s not a crime to be homeless and it’s not a crime to have addictions. It’s not a crime to be mentally ill,” said Smith.

Policing priorities in the NWT

Smith also explained RCMP priorities in the NWT – which are set by the GNWT – and offered some statistics from policing efforts in Yellowknife.

“It shouldn’t be a secret what we do and it shouldn’t be a surprise what we do,” said Smith.

Smith said the NWT RCMP has four priorities to direct their policing efforts:

• targeted enforcement to reduce illegal drugs and alcohol;
• build strong relationships with Indigenous communities and residents;
• provide policing services that reflect recognition and efforts to reduce harm to Indigenous women and girls;
• and increase community knowledge and understanding of policing roles and responsibilities.

Smith said RCMP are halfway through the three-year term for this set of priorities.

The RCMP have increased policing related to drug trafficking in the last few years, said Smith, including the creation of the Territorial Crime Reduction Unit which has been “vey active” across the NWT. The addition of a tactical armoured vehicle to the RCMP’s fleet has also assisted with drug policing said Smith.

Policing statistics

Smith said there is a perception in the territory that youth are being recruited to traffic drugs, which he said is “actually not the case.” He said 89 percent of drug offenders in the territory are adults and only 11 percent are youth.

Sixty percent of people the RCMP has charged with drug trafficking are NWT residents, Smith said. Of the 40 percent non-residents, he said 51 percent are under court orders to not return to the territory. He said RCMP have charged 19 percent of those people with violating those orders and trafficking drugs in the NWT.

Smith said the increased policing of illegal drugs has already seen success like what RCMP said was the largest seizure of cocaine in the territory in October.

The increase in drug policing is in part thanks to investments from the GNWT, Smith said. He said the RCMP will again receive $200,000 in territorial funding for recruitment. The salaries of members on the territorial crime reduction unit are also paid by the GNWT, he said.

Generally, the NWT government is responsible for 70 percent of the costs of RCMP operations in the territory while the federal government covers the remaining 30 percent. The GNWT’s latest budget earmarks $66.77 million in spending for policing in 2026-2027.

Smith also credited GNWT investment as being the reason the RCMP were able to purchase the tactical armoured vehicle and a new PC-24 twin engine jet.

“We’re doing our best to utilize those effectively and efficiently,” said Smith.

To build relationships with Indigenous communities and residents, Smith said the RCMP is translating their detachment signs into Indigenous languages, honouring Indigenous special constables with RCMP headstones, and running an Indigenous Consultative Committee comprised of Elders from all regions in the territory.

“This has been a great endeavour, and it’s very supportive of the RCMP efforts throughout the territory,” said Smith, adding the committee is looking for someone from the Tłı̨chǫ region to join the committee.

The RCMP have recently started tracking officers’ efforts at community engagement and Smith said the NWT makes up for 26 percent of RCMP engagement nationwide.

Smith said the NWT is a leader among RCMP detachments for sexual assault investigation training and oversight.

The territory has one of the few successful domestic violence review committees in the country, he said. The committee includes NGOs and advocates from around the territory that review randomly selected files to ensure the police properly responded to a situation. They also offered sexual offence investigator training before it was adopted nationally.

Speaking to policing in Yellowknife specifically, Smith said the number of calls for service has not changed much from 2024/2025 to 2025/2026, but alcohol and drug complaints in the downtown core went down 10 percent in that same period – from 4,126 to 3,614.

Smith said police are now doing 60 patrols in Yellowknife’s downtown core a day, or about four every hour.

While there has been a slight increase in the number of criminal charges, Smith said that “doesn’t necessarily mean crime has gone up.” In 2024-2025 police laid 299 criminal charges in Yellowknife, Smith said, and in 2025-2026 police laid 352 charges. He attributes the increase to “better luck with the investigations.”