N.W.T. making good progress on conservation goals, auditor general finds

Sarah Krymalowski · CBC News

· Posted: May 23, 2025 9:42 PM EDT | Last Updated: May 24

Canada's auditor wide says the Northwest Territories authorities is "on track" to conscionable its conservation goals.

The Office of the Auditor General of Canada presented its study connected conservation areas successful the Northwest Territories to MLAs and the nationalist connected Friday. It covers the territory's enactment connected this contented from 2016 to 2024.

The study looked astatine the government's advancement successful addressing 3 of the territory's conservation priorities: ensuring semipermanent backing for conservation areas, strengthening absorption of protected areas, and establishing caller protected and conservation areas.

The auditor wide recovered the territory had made "timely progress" connected achieving the extremity of ensuring sustainable conservation backing — mostly due to the fact that of the "N.W.T.:Our Land for the Future" conservation statement signed past year.

The agreement provides $375 cardinal to Indigenous governments successful N.W.T. for conservation initiatives, with backing coming from the national authorities and backstage donors.

"This important measurement underscores the government's committedness to implementing an Indigenous-led attack to protected and conserved areas. It volition enactment Indigenous peoples' stewardship of their lands portion besides helping the territory grow its conservation network," auditor Jerry DeMarco told reporters connected Friday afternoon.

The auditor general's study said the territory is besides connected way to conscionable its different 2 conservation goals, although there are issues with the absorption of Territorial Protected Areas that request to beryllium addressed, including a request for much monitoring to determine how co-management partnerships are working.

Recommendations

The auditors also flagged that galore of the territory's hiring decisions related to the absorption of protected areas were made without input from Indigenous partners, and they recommended that the territorial authorities alteration this.

The study besides said that the territorial government's continued reliance connected short-term national backing to negociate protected areas was a concern, arsenic it pb to galore jobs being filled done short-term contracts, resulting successful precocious turnover.

"We heard from Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations that the accrued turnover placed a load connected their unit to stock their Indigenous cognition each clip a caller worker from the authorities joined the operational squad of the territorial protected areas," the study says.

The report besides urges the territorial authorities to enactment with the Tłı̨chǫ Government and Dehcho First Nations to make a program and timeline by the extremity of 2025 for 5 projected protected areas wherever negotiations are presently stalled.

The territorial authorities agreed to each recommendations.