Carney to hold talks with Inuit leaders on major projects bill in N.W.T. next week

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney will be in Inuvik, N.W.T. on July 24 to continue talks with Indigenous groups on the government’s major projects bill.

Carney will co-host the Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee with Natan Obed, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president.

The meeting will cover a range of issues according to the Prime Minister’s Office, including how the Building Canada Act can be implemented consistent with Inuit land claims agreements and in partnership with Inuit.

The Building Canada Act gives the government the ability to fast track projects that are deemed to be in the national interest by sidestepping some review requirements under a host of federal laws.

Carney hosted a meeting with hundreds of First Nations chiefs in Gatineau, Que. Thursday in the for the first of three meetings with Indigenous groups.

Some chiefs walked out of the meeting of the summit saying they saw an insufficient response to concerns they’d been raising for weeks, while others left the meeting “cautiously optimistic.”

Before travelling to Inuvik, the prime minister will also briefly visit Fort Smith, the town in the Northwest Territories where he was born and spent his early childhood.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 18, 2025.