Northwest Territories

The 55th Dene National Assembly is being held this week in Fort Good Hope, from the 20th to the 22nd. This meeting is held annually, allowing Dene leaders from across Denendeh to gather for discussions, to consult with each other, and to make resolutions. People from across the 30 Dene communities travel to attend this event every year.  

The YWCA NWT supports over 4,000 people across the territory through their advocacy, housing and youth programs to name a few, yet the organization is still facing federal funding hurdles, even as it reaches a 60-year mark of services in the N.W.T. Dumbuya-Sesay, Executive Director of the YWCA says the organization’s youth programs in particular are facing challenges in attaining financial backing. “Currently, with the funding that we get to run these programs, it's very limited."

The GNWT has launched a survey today, asking participants about their satisfaction with the mental wellness and addictions recovery services available in the territory.

Statistics Canada released data showing the N.W.T. was among the few areas of the country that saw an increased rate of month to month building permits at the end of 2025. The territory stood out as an outlier, even among other jurisdictions that saw increases, with a whopping rate of over 2,000 per cent in increased development permits in late 2025. “The Northwest Territories was up 2,090.2%,” according to the report which was released on Jan. 13 by Stats Canada.

Elder Angelina “Angie” Hazel Crerar, a respected Métis leader and community advocate was born in Fort Resolution, N.W.T., on July 3, 1936, and died on Jan. 9, 2026, at age 89. She moved to Grande Prairie in 1966 with her children. Shannon Dunfield, a longtime friend, said Crerar took many people under her wing and was widely respected. “She was well known in a lot of places because of who she was,” Dunfield said. “Her loss is being felt all over.”

The GNWT’s Chief Environmental Health Officer has issued a boil water advisory for the community of Wekweètì following "freezing damage" to the water treatment plant. “This advisory is precautionary in nature and is due to freezing damage to infrastructure in the community water treatment plant associated with an extended recent power outage. The treatment plant currently cannot properly treat the water,” read a statement released on behalf of Dr. Chirag Rohit this afternoon.

Power has now been fully restored to the community of Wekweeti following an outage that began yesterday afternoon. This morning, Vic Barr, Manager, Naka Power Utilities reported electricity had been restored to about approximately 75 per cent of the community. Barr said the outage was caused by a mechanical issue with two of the community’s three generation units. Crews remain on site and are working to restore full power. Temperatures in the region are currently in the minus 35 zone.

The Government of the Northwest Territories has launched a one-year pilot program using Mika AI Scribe to help health-care providers with note taking and record keeping.

Chief Environmental Health Officer Chirag Rohit says the growing list of active water advisories in the NWT, with the latest one active in Wrigley, are caused by a host of issues, including aging infrastructure and climate change. “These are not related to one single issue or one single situation,” says the Chief Environmental Health Officer.