“It’s time to make the Northwest Territories a bigger priority.”
A universal child care deal under her belt, Premier Caroline Cochrane updated reporters on her trip to Ottawa with a virtual news conference Dec. 16. It was almost exactly 24 hours after she was rubbing shoulders with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on national television as they announced the Northwest Territories had become the latest jurisdiction to sign on to a federal child care deal.
But she had other things on her agenda, including getting the NWT into the federal conversation more often. She said the territory’s economy continues to struggle while Canada rebounds from the impacts of the pandemic.
“This was a case even before the pandemic was declared over 20 months ago,” said Cochrane. “There’s economic and social challenges that impact the NWT and residents in waves that our neighbors south of the 60th parallel take for granted.”
This list includes basic infrastructure, affordable and reliable housing and the cost of living, especially outside the regional hubs.
“The high cost of living, housing, and energy mean living in the north is not affordable,” she said. “As a result, residents in the territory, the majority Indigenous, suffer from higher rates of hunger, food insecurity, fewer childcare options, homelessness and inadequate housing.”
Cochrane and the prime minister talked about making federal funding more flexible.
“We talked about how the Northwest Territories needs the fiscal flexibility to use federal funding in ways that best represents the diversity of our residents, communities and Indigenous governments,” said Cochrane, adding she left Trudeau with an open invitation to visit the NWT. “I was encouraged by our discussion.”
She said the Mackenzie Valley Highway project was addressed.
“It’s connecting people, communities, to other communities, to opportunities,” said Cochrane, adding the plan continues to be to follow Canada’s Arctic and Northern Policy Framework, released in late 2019.
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Click here to read the policy framework
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“We view this as the road map to closing the gap and we’ll continue to work with Canada and our partner’s Indigenous governments to ensure that the framework becomes a reality and provides positive, long lasting benefits to Northerners,” said Cochrane.