NWT won’t commit to transferring land within 12 months

The NWT government has declined to adopt an accelerated 12-month land transfer process that MLAs requested in a June motion. The GNWT said it can only “efficiently” control some of the steps toward giving communities more land.

Yellowknife MLAs Kieron Testart and Robert Hawkins advanced the motion in June. The territorial capital has spent years working to acquire more parcels of land from the GNWT for development, and some local politicians have been critical in the past of the time those transfers take.

Responding to that motion this month, the NWT’s Department of Environment and Climate Change – also known as ECC, which holds responsibility for land management – said it was “committed to streamlining internal processes wherever possible” but many steps are outside its control.

As examples of steps it can’t control, the department listed the likes of survey requirements, necessary community bylaws and planning requirements, land sale agreements, legal review and the duty to consult with Indigenous governments.

The June motion focused on a massive transfer of land being pursued by the City of Yellowknife to set up a new residential neighbourhood north of Frame Lake. That parcel forms a central pillar of a new-look community plan that would turn the land north of the lake into 1,000 new homes.

ECC said in this month’s response that work on the Frame Lake parcel has been “advancing expeditiously through the department’s established land administration process.”

The department said the city is in the process of signing a land sale agreement, meaning the land transfer is in its final stages, but the municipality still has to complete surveying and pass a land acquisition bylaw.

What is slowing land transfers?

Robert Jenkins, deputy minister for ECC, did not address the Frame Lake parcel’s status during a public briefing for MLAs last week. More broadly, Jenkins said ECC is focused on improvements that address the number of applications the department receives and the backlog.

“We get so many applications that sometimes it feels like we don’t have our head above water,” said Jenkins.

Acknowledging the land transfer process can be lengthy, Jenkins said “many of these requirements exist to provide certainty, protect rights and ensure communities receive land that can be effectively managed and developed.”

Since 2023, Jenkins said, the department has transferred 281 parcels as fee simple ownership. ECC has 174 active community land transfer requests.

The department added two positions in 2026 “dedicated to consultation and engagement on land tenure applications” and dedicated a position to processing land sales, Jenkins said, adding this had sped up application turnaround times, though he did not say by how much.

Jenkins said the GNWT is prioritizing applications for bulk land transfer – multiple large parcels of public land – that will be used for housing purposes, “because they have the greatest impact on housing supply and affordability.”

He encouraged communities to do the same with their applications, suggesting if a community has 20 applications and plans to develop some land immediately while other parcels won’t be developed for five years, the community should let the GNWT know which applications to address first.

The Public Land Act, which was passed in 2019, has yet to come into force because the GNWT still has to create regulations. ECC assistant deputy minister Nathen Richea said this law will merge the Commissioner’s Land Act and Northwest Territories Lands Act, providing consistent information on administration, price and management of public lands.

“We’ve really taken a hard look at how to find efficiencies within our system and try to advance these applications as quickly as possible, and we’re seeing some results,” said Richea.

Surveys causing ‘significant’ delays

Jenkins received multiple questions from MLAs about the average timeline of land transfer applications. He said he could not provide one because there is not enough data.

He said the department cannot set a standard timeline because the speed of processing an application is influenced by factors outside ECC’s control. The department pointed to surveying as one of the more “significant” timeline considerations.

Richea said surveyor availability is the main delay. Only a licensed Canada land surveyor can perform a legal survey to create lots or transfer land in the NWT. Weather and site accessibility also impact how long a survey takes.

If a lot needs to be used quickly for housing, Richea said the applicant can lease the land and work on the survey as development begins.

An example of this is in Inuvik, where the town has leased commissioner’s land for a solar farm and battery storage facility. Inuvik’s council will soon vote on a bylaw to purchase the land for $251 – the application fee plus $1 – as the survey is now complete.

ECC staff said time is also needed for consultation and engagement with Indigenous governments and other potentially affected parties. The standard for consultation is 30 days, but Jenkins said that could change depending on conditions in land claim agreements and interim measures agreements.

What can speed this step up, Jenkins said, is working with Indigenous governments early in the application process to address concerns.

If all identified Indigenous governments respond before a consultation period is over, Jenkins said the GNWT can also end that step early.