Yellowknifers bring infrastructure needs, policy ideas to Europe

Yellowknife had two representatives at a recent European Union conference: Mayor Ben Hendriksen and arts advocate Mary Buckland.

The European Union’s Arctic Forum, Indigenous Peoples’ Dialogue and Arctic Youth Dialogue took place in Brussels from September 1 to 3.

Hendriksen spoke on a panel titled Connecting the Arctic: Ports, Airports, Bridges, Railways, and Digital Infrastructure. A recording is available on the European Commission’s website with the panel begining at time stamp 14:28:39.

“We are seeing infrastructure being put on the table that was last on the table in the late 1950s, early 1960s,” Hendriksen said on the panel.

He told the conference that no “hard infrastructure” had been built in the NWT since the end of the 1950s, and he expected little investment from other levels of government when he took over as mayor in 2025.

“Within a month and a half, everything had switched,” Hendrisken said, referencing promised federal investment and Prime Minister Mark Carney’s referral of three major projects to the Major Projects Office in March 2026.

With expected incoming federal investment, Hendrisken said Yellowknife and northern Canadian communities are “not just implementors, we are participating in these conversations” about how and where money is spent.

“We’re able to participate in these conversations about real critical infrastructure to yes the North, but ultimately to the Canadian context right now as we have many threats to our sovereignty.”

He spoke about the lack of major infrastructure in the territory, like roads or deep sea ports, and the impact financial investments would have down south compared to in the North.

“We’ll talk about $2 billion projects to build a highway up the Mackenzie Valley or a $2 billion project to build a road that’s now being agreed between two of the Indigenous governments and the federal government and the territory to access an area that is incredibly mineral rich,” said Hendriksen.

“If you took that $2 billion to southern Canada, you’d build the equivalent of about 3 km of a subway line in Toronto, but this would be life changing infrastructure in the North.”

A key panel topic was the issues northern and remote communities face in terms of internet.

Hendriksen spoke of a recent visit to Łútsël K’é where he said he learned the community only got access to high-speed internet in 2024 through Starlink. He emphasized the need for redundant infrastructure, like extra fibre lines, to prevent internet connection from being lost as the territory saw during the 2023 wildfire season.

Youth present Indigenous sovereignty policy recommendations

Mary Buckland, vice president of the Yellowknife Artist-Run Community Centre, asked Hendriksen during his panel about the best practices for engaging with Indigenous governments.

He said the best practice for engagement is “listening to what’s on the ground and responding and seemingly being genuine about wanting to hear what’s happening.”

“What I would give the Government of Canada a lot of credit for right now is that they are listening to people. They might be moving incredibly fast, but they are listening to municipalities,” said Hendriksen.

Hendriksen said it was because of advocacy from Inuvik, Iqaluit, Whitehorse and Yellowknife that the Department of National Defence held town halls in Yellowknife and Inuvik on planned defence spending in the North. “

Buckland participated in her own panel, presenting policy recommendations from 33 youth representing Arctic and European Union countries as part of the Arctic youth forum.

The youth were divided into four sub groupscovering topics like food security, biodiversity and climate security, cultural sovereignty and security, and health sovereignty and security. Buckland spoke on behalf of the cultural sovereignty group.

“The cultural group was addressing how can inclusive and equitable processes ensure sovereignty and security, but the real question we battled with was how do you even make processes equitable?” said Buckland during the panel.

Buckland said one of the group’s recommendations – that the European Union and Arctic Indigenous people co-create mandatory education courses on Arctic Indigenous cultures for European government employees – is inspired by the GNWT’s Living Well Together course, which is mandatory for all GNWT employees.

In total, youth issued 20 recommendations to Arctic states. Buckland told Cabin Radio it would be “an absolute win for for Arctic youth having a voice on quite a high political level” if even one is adopted by a government.

“It’s lovely to be included in these spaces” said Buckland. “But it’s kind-of a stretch goal to ensure that the work that we’re doing is actually like reaching the people who need to see it.”

Buckland said the opportunity to gather with Indigenous youth from around the world was the most impactful part of her participation in the Arctic youth forum. She was also able to share resources on “how to take action to policy and how to engage community members to make change happen.”

“As a Canadian coming over here, it was fascinating to see the way in which certain elements of things that I would expect are not visible in the legislative landscape, as well as the physical landscape,” said Buckland during the panel.

“It was incredible to come over and learn from my peers and hopefully I was able to bring some perspective as well.”

Buckland left conference attendees with a warning and call to action.

“Hope is really powerful, especially youth hope. But it is incredibly easy to damage youth hope,” she said.

“Look to your youth because they are doing incredible things in your communities that you might not be aware of.”

Buckland’s panel can also be found on the European Commission’s website beginbing at time stamp 12:06:25.

Yellowknifer Obed Duru also participated in the Arctic youth forum. He encouraged youth to apply for similar opportunities like the Arctic Mayors’ Forum’s Soar Youth Storytelling Program and Arctic Frontiers’ Young Student Forum. Applications close on September 21 and October 5 respectively.