ECONOMICALLY, 2025 felt like the fire alarm kept going off. It was a year that underlined how connected we all are to global events. American tariffs and talk of 51st state status alarmed Canadians from Ellesmere Island to Windsor, Ontario. Wars dragged on in Ukraine and the Middle East. Gold prices surged, while Chinese critical mineral export controls sparked upheaval in commodity markets.
In the North, this compounded pre-existing challenges, including: housing; general affordability; equitable access to economic opportunity; and balancing resource development with environmental and social sustainability. It highlighted the fiscal and debt pressures bearing down on territorial treasuries, even as Canada’s new federal government ramped up its focus on the North. Altogether, this tees up 2026 to be a high-stakes year for Nunavut, the NWT and the Yukon. Adding to the drama is new leadership. Both Nunavut Premier John Main and Yukon Premier Currie Dixon are rookies who took office in November. The veteran, Premier R.J. Simpson of the NWT, was only sworn in in 2024. In a few years, when their terms are up, Northerners will judge them based on how current global megatrends translated into real opportunities in their communities. Here’s how these politicians hope to make that happen.
NUNAVUT
Impressive. That’s how Main describes Nunavut’s 2025 GDP figures. Indeed, the latest territorial forecast from Signal49 Research (formerly the Conference Board of Canada) showed Nunavut growing at 2.7 per cent in 2025, accelerating to 6.5 per cent in 2026. Nunavut’s new leader is fortunate to be inheriting an economy that’s in the growth phase of the mining cycle, though Main knows the territory isn’t immune to resource-related ups and downs. While B2Gold, Nunavut’s fourth operating mine, began production late in 2025, other mines are getting closer to end of life and not everyone enjoys the benefits of a boom. “We need to do a better job capturing the benefits from resource development,” says Main. “We just don’t have enough of our residents participating in the wage economy.”
Nunavut government statistics from September 2025 show that only 54 per cent of Inuit people aged 15 and over were formally employed, versus 87.7 per cent of non-Inuit. Changing this stat is one reason Main is hopeful the federal government will invest in the North, particularly in projects led by Inuit parties. Options include a hydro project for Iqaluit, the Arctic Economic & Security Corridor road-to-port project terminating at Grays Bay and the Kivalliq power and fibre optic line. (of these, only the hydro project has gone to the Major Projects Review office for final consideration.)
While he’s aware Nunavut has a gap in infrastructure compared to southern Canada, Main is adamant that any investment in his territory needs to benefit locals as well as the national interest. To his mind, it would be a shame to see resources spent on a major project near a Nunavut community and still have that community struggle with issues such as poverty, housing and education.
His biggest obsatcle will be preventing these projects from running into the same kind of permitting and implementation delays that have plagued previous investments such as the Nanisivik naval facility, which, after 18 years, was still yet to open in early 2026. In late 2025, his new government was in the process of developing its detailed mandate, but, generally, Main is keen to see a holistic economic-development program—one where housing, education and child care are just as critical as big mines and federal national interest projects.
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
If the phone rings, you’ve got to deal with it. That’s one thing Simpson learned from his father’s experience as a small business owner. The same, he says, is true of being premier. Right now, the economy is Simpson’s most pressing call. Compared to Nunavut, the NWT is in a very different part of the natural resource cycle. Rather than growth, Signal49 predicts a contracting economy for both 2025 and 2026. Longtime diamond mine Diavik is set to shut down before spring and Ekati mine needed a $115-million federal loan to avoid bankruptcy last year. The NWT can’t afford to watch them close without something taking their place. Fortunately, the territory is well endowed with the critical minerals for which Canada’s allies are clamouring, such as copper, lithium, tungsten and cobalt, with potential for mines coming online to pursue them.
The territory is also included in the feds’ sudden focus on the North. “We have to take advantage of this moment where there is interest in the Arctic from all over the world,” says Simpson. “And, finally, from Canada as well.”
Some of the possible national interest projects could bring dramatic change to the NWT, though the territory has its own lengthy approvals processes with which to contend. The first phase of the potential Mackenzie
Valley Highway (a decades-old idea) would connect Norman Wells to the North American road system, eventually going all the way to Inuvik. It’s something Simpson plans to push hard. In addition to providing secure and efficient supply chains to the region, a highway would improve Canada’s access to its growing military presence in Inuvik. The Canadian Armed Forces announced plans in 2025 to upgrade Inuvik into one of Canada’s three Northern Operational Support Hubs. Moreover, the road might encourage critical minerals exploration along the route, as well as oil and gas exploration (Simpson also recently appeared on the Politico Canada podcast, where he called for the feds to lift the moratorium on offshore oil and gas development).
Otherwise, Simpson is trying to be honest about the realities of delivering public services with a shrinking revenue base. Fiscal sustainability reductions in the 2025-26 territorial budget include $106.9 million in programs that have ended, expired or won’t be renewed.
“We still have to continue to bring that message forward that we want to provide the basic services that government can,” he says. “But we can’t do everything.”
YUKON
Dixon may be a rookie premier, but within six weeks of November’s territorial election, he had his cabinet sworn in, the Legislature recalled and a mini budget tabled. That document highlights the Yukon’s fiscal and economic challenges, including a significant (and rising) debt and a mining sector in the “trough” part of its cycle.
“It’s hard not to have a concerning or negative view,” says Dixon, who was a minister in a previous Yukon Party government. While record gold prices of more than US$5,000 per ounce have buoyed Yukon placer miners, the Yukon has only one hard rock mining operation in Keno Hill, and Victoria Gold’s Eagle property remains closed after its 2024 heap-leach disaster. In response, Dixon plans to focus on regulatory streamlining across three areas: reforms following the 2024 Eagle Mine disaster; working with First Nation and federal partners to improve the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board; and improving Water Board processes.
While the Yukon government’s economic forecast has zero hard-rock mines starting over the next five years (and a modest return to growth of 1.4 per cent in 2026, driven by non-mining industries, after two years of shrinkage), global demand and regulatory reform in the Yukon could change this. Dixon says that restarting the Minto copper mine, now owned by the Selkirk First Nation, would be a major milestone in economic reconciliation. He’s also hopeful that global interest in critical minerals and federal interest in the North will lead to further development that will benefit the Yukon.
Most analysts expect the bulk of defence investment spending to take place elsewhere (none of the three new Northern Operational Support Hubs were placed in the Yukon), but one positive is the proposed interconnect between the Yukon and B.C.’s electrical grids. This could power large mines and open the path for more Yukon renewable energy projects, a necessity highlighted by a winter where extreme cold and increased power needs put the current grid under immense strain.
Dixon says it will be crucial in 2026 to partner with industry and First
Nation development corporations in order to overcome what he calls “the weakest public finances that we’ve had in
my lifetime.”
