Skip to content

GNWT climate projects get boost from feds

Walter Strong/NNSL photoRobert C. McLeod
Walter Strong/NNSL photo The GNWT is still in the draft stages of an MOU on a "made in the NWT" carbon tax. Robert C. McLeod

The GWNT’s plan to prepare for climate change will be getting a boost from the federal government.

The territorial government, from 2017 to 2019, will see $1.7 million funneled into 13 climate change adaptation projects in NWT, including “emergency plan implementation, research on the spread of insects and disease, and wildland fire protection for communities and territorial parks,” according to a statement released by the GWNT.

Part of the government of Canada’s Climate Change Preparedness in the North (CCPN) program, the funding is meant to support adaptation initiatives in the territories, as well as in Nunavik and Nunatsiavut, the release stated.

With the looming threat of climate change in the North, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Robert McLeod said the impact on “infrastructure, ecosystems...and culture and heritage,” needs to be assessed.

“The (CCPN) will assist us in ensuring our communities are adapted and resilient in the face of a changing climate,” McLeod stated in the release.