GNWT Seeks Feedback On Development Of New "Made-In-North" Mineral Resources Act

The Government of the North West Territories ("GNWT") is formally engaging with interested stakeholders, Indigenous governments and people, and members of the public about the development of the territory's first Mineral Resources Act.

Historically, mining has been federally regulated in the NWT. In 2014, the Northwest Territories Devolution Agreement transferred responsibility over public lands, and by extension the mining sector, from the federal government to the GNWT. ¹

With its new authority, the GNWT is crafting a "made-in-the-North" Mineral Resources Act. This Act will replace the NWT's existing Mining Regulations,² which regulate some administrative elements of mineral extraction, but which do not address environmental monitoring, the allocation of socioeconomic benefits from resource extraction, or the relationship between the mining sector and the Indigenous peoples of the NWT. ³ Currently the NWT is the only jurisdiction in Canada that does not have a