Earlier this month the GNWT unveiled its new policy for assisting people forced out of their homes from an evacuation.
Anyone over 18 ordered to evacuate because of fire, flood, smoke or other unforeseen climate-change driven disaster will receive $800, plus an additional $400 per dependent. This probably just enough to last a week, but in the GNWT's defence it's comparable to the last-minute program finance minister Caroline Wawzonek pulled out of her hat last year during the widespread evacuation of the southern part of the territory. The GNWT is literally scraping the barrel to try and find something to at least be able to help out people forced out of their homes.
I suspect the amount of funding available to help people impacted by climate change will dwindle as these disasters and their aftermaths continue to mount. For comparison, when the unprecedented Fort McMurray wildfires of 2016 shocked the nation, then-Premier Rachel Notley gave each evacuee access to a no-strings-attached $5,000 bank account to cover their needs. I'd say those levels of government support are long gone.
We also saw repeated changes to the territory's barge schedule, with many of the fly in, fly out communities being told they won't be getting a delivery this year. Instead, items will have to be flown in — which is not only substantially more expensive than going by river but also a significant bump in greenhouse gas emissions. All this additional costs will of course trickle down to the people living in these small communities.
Meanwhile, the hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk is looking to hire a Community Relocation Specialist to begin planning the inevitable moving of the community while workers bring in massive boulders to the coastline to slow the rate of erosion into the Arctic Ocean. This project has already cost Canadian taxpayers $50 million and the final bill is certainly going to be a lot higher. It's absolutely necessary since the people of Tuktoyaktuk are not responsible for global warming, but one can only wonder what that kind of money could do for the housing crisis across the territory.
Since this editorial went to press, the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway has washed out due to overflow, driving home just how fragile the solid ground is around here.
Not too far away, Aklavik, which famously resisted relocation to Inuvik and celebrates this with its community slogan "Never say Die", is preparing for possible flooding as it appears all the moisture the rest of the territory so dearly needs is coming to the Beaufort Delta — which is likely not going to do our infrastructure any favours.
Whether pressure on smaller communities is at risk of spiralling out of control or is well on its way into the process is hard to say. But in an economy dependent on mining, Enterprise is clearly the canary. Much of the hamlet remains unrebuilt and few have returned home. It's not hard to imagine the community simply ceasing to exist as people migrate to places where they can access the services they need.
After many decades of Yellowknife directing the lion's share of the GNWT's budget towards itself, most of the issues the rest of the NWT is facing don't really apply to the capital city. The main way this problem manifests itself is the accumulation of people who can't afford to live in the non-Yellowknife communities who migrate there. Again, this is a vicious cycle, since having a larger population necessitates more funding for services, leaving the rest of the NWT with less to share among themselves. Ask anyone from outside Yellowknife and they'll tell you communities have been on the verge of breaking for a long time. Start throwing climate disasters at these communities — be those either existential emergencies such as wildfires or supply emergencies like no barge services — and there's not going to be much incentive left to stay there, other than it being one's home.
Less people in smaller communities then translates to greater costs, since it's far more difficult to ensure essential services in those communities. For example, here in Inuvik the dental clinic has shut down again, basically requiring anyone needing dental work to fly to either Yellowknife or Whitehorse. No dental service makes it harder to attract other services to the community.
Certainly the NWT has an economic future as a source of rare earth metals for the emerging battery market, which is great for Yellowknife but likely won't impact the rest of us that much except if it improves the GNWT's revenue flow. Unfortunately, the complete lack of infrastructure means most additional revenue is burned up in air travel.
And it's not as simple as just building roads either. Since much of the NWT sits on top of permafrost that's thawing at accelerated rates, the ground you build on today may very well not be there in 20 years. The wildfires near Enterprise rendered railways inoperable as well. So the lone reliable form of moving goods, services and people around the territory is airfare — the least sustainable option.
It's not just polar bears and narwhals — entire communities are at risk of extinction. Climate change is making investing in the NWT an increasingly risky gamble, particularly outside of Yellowknife, and I'm not sure there's much the GNWT or even the federal government can do about it. To reverse this trend would require billions of tax dollars and sustained political will, and we all know how short in supply both of those are these days.