GNWT’s projected surplus drops $154 million in challenging times

The GNWT’s projected operating surplus of $170 million has shrunk to a projected surplus of $16 million, says Finance Minister Caroline Wawzonek.

The $154 million decline was partly needed to cover off unforeseen costs, such as: Additional wildfire suppression costs; funding to education bodies to assist with the loss of Jordan’s principal federal support; and further subsidies to shield ratepayers from electricity price spikes that stem from low water levels.

Other new costs include: Higher salaries for educators; more spending on transitional housing and shelter services; harbor restoration in Hay River; Aurora college’s practical nurse training program; and security updates at the Yellowknife Courthouse.

So far this year, the Assembly has also approved increases to the capital budget of $65 million. Most was for the first year of a new three year annual $42 million housing investment commitment made after Budget 2025 was released.

Said Wawzonek in the Assembly: “Our progress towards meeting the original fiscal goals has been hindered by rising expenditure pressures and significant economic and geopolitical uncertainty. Revising the fiscal strategy to enable strategic investments that foster opportunity and stability for Northerners is essential amid challenging times.”

Wawzonek pointed to “no growth in private investment,” and housing shortages that continue to weigh on the economic outlook.

This as public and private sector employment have remained relatively steady, but the Ekati Diamond Mine closure earlier this year of its open-pit mining operation due to low diamond prices affected hundreds of employees and contractors in the Northwest Territories.

And the Diavik Diamond Mine will close in early 2026.

The GNWT’s debt will be at $1.862 billion, well below the $3.1 billion borrowing limit imposed by Ottawa.

Range Lake MLA Kieron Testart recalled when, in 2017, then-premier Bob McLeod raised a ‘red alert’ over oil and gas development in the Beaufort Sea after then-prime minister Justin Trudeau declared a moratorium without consulting the Northwest Territories.

“Today, we need a new red alert; a red alert over our mining industry,” Testart said.

“The economy is at risk of losing its most significant private sector contributors through Ekati and all the mines. Employment training, infrastructure investment face an uncertain future after years of relying on this industry to support our economy and Indigenous nations who co-manage our regulatory system are soon to lose financial and economic benefits from their agreements with these companies.”

Testart criticized the government for being, “seemingly unprepared for this eventuality,” as no new major projects have been meaningfully advanced and are on the horizon to replace the mining decline.

“Declining exploration, outdated systems of mineral tenure and ineffective policy that have stalled out our mining sector,” he said. “Despite the urging of industry experts to correct this for more than a decade to both the federal and territorial governments, we only have further inaction and hesitation to show for it.”

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“It’s time for a red alert for mining. It’s time for an independent review of mining decline.”

Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins said we have an “economy of fear and worry.”

He called former premier McLeod “Métis Churchill,” referring to Sir Winston Churchill, the former UK wartime prime minister.

“I’m prepared to eat my hat today, in the sense of I often thought Bob McLeod was off the page. What’s happening? He’s turning into the Metis Churchill, goodness sakes. Ten years ago, he said this was important, and some of us gave him a hard time, but it’s turning out he was true. He turned a page way ahead of us, when he called for a red alert on the economy. He must have felt something or knew something we didn’t know.”