Photo from inside the Legislative Assembly. (Photo by MyTrueNorthNow.com. staff)
News
1 min.read

Finance and ECE departments receive new deputy ministers

Keven Dow
By Keven Dow

Premier Caroline Cochrane has appointed William MacKay as Deputy Minister of the Department of Finance and John MacDonald as Deputy Minister of the Department of ECE.

MacKay will join the GNWT from the Government of Nunavut on September 1st. He replaces Sandy Kalgutkar, who indicated his plans to retire earlier this year.

MacDonald moves to ECE this week from the position of Assistant Deputy Minister, Environment and Climate Change with the Department of ENR. He takes over from Rita Mueller who has left the NWT public service.

Cochrane says Deputy Ministers play a critical role in planning and managing how the GNWT will deliver on the commitments it has made to advance the priorities of the 19th Legislative Assembly and improve the lives of residents in the territory.

“The extensive northern experience that Mr. MacKay and Mr. MacDonald will bring to their roles will be invaluable to our government,” she adds.

MacKay served as the Deputy Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs and Secretary to Cabinet since September 2019. Prior to that position, MacKay served four years as Deputy Minister of Justice and Attorney General.

MacDonald has also served 3 years as the Assistant Deputy Minister, Education and Culture with the Department of ECE and several years as an Assistant Deputy Minister in the Government of Nunavut.

Deputy Ministers are the non-elected head of a GNWT department and are appointed on the advice of the Premier.

Keven Dow
Keven Dow
News. Keven moved here from Ontario in November of 2018. As of December Keven is back to doing full-time news after transitioning into a news/mid-days position in late 2019. Prior to that, he was doing weekends/news for about 8-9 months. He's from a small tomato town in Ontario and went to College at Fanshawe for Radio Broadcasting. He loves talking about sports, entertainment, the community, and local events. Got a news tip? Email me at [email protected]

Continue Reading

You may also like



cjcd Now playing play

- Advertisement -

Related Articles

- Advertisement -

Latest News

Hundreds of crew make progress on Decho fires relieved by rain

Fire
Hundreds of crew members co-ordinated aggressive responses to fires in the Dehcho region and along Hwy 1. On Wednesday cooler temperatures and rainfall reinforced long awaited progress by Wildland firefighters.

Shauit’s latest music project joins diverse richness of Indigenous north and south at FOTR

Folk On The Rocks
Shauit says his latest work blends Northern Indigenous and southern Indigenous Latin and African music. The artist is bringing ground-breaking fusions created in collaboration with musicians from Turtle Island’s North, Quebec, Mexico and France to Folk On The Rocks in Yellowknife. “To go to more places that Innu music didn't go before. To show my nation, to show young artists that they can do whatever they want,” explains the artist, who is originally from Maliotenam.

Hay River on roll to another ParticipACTION win

Northwest Territories
The town of Hay River has once again been named a finalist in the 2026 Community Challenge.Just last year, Hay River not only picked up the title of the most active community in N.W.T. but also nabbed $15,000 in prize funding support for local physical activity and sport initiatives. And in 2024, Hay River won the top prize in the national challenge, picking up $100,000 in prize funding.

Crews fighting fires in Dehcho amid extreme conditions and poor visibility

Fire
In the Dehcho region, Wildland crews reported that while some areas remain problematic, direct attack methods on FS016, south of Liidlii Kue and Fort Simpson were effective on Tuesday. In Wrigley, response efforts were overwhelmed by conditions and poor visibility.  In the South Slave region, a wildfire located about 20 km from Hay River has been 90 per cent contained following nearly two weeks of active response.

Intersections across city to see signal and hardware makeovers in next 3 weeks

City of Yellowknife
A series of traffic signal maintenance and hardware upgrades are set to begin Thursday at intersections throughout the city of Yellowknife. The work is scheduled to continue until July 31. City staff said during the three week period, temporary traffic signal interruptions can be anticipated.