While permafrost is top of mind in the Mackenzie Delta, other areas of the territory have other priorities: In Yellowknife, the threat of wildfires continues to loom large given the unprecedented three-week evacuation of around 20,000 residents in 2023. 

It’s why Yellowknife mayor Ben Henriksen said climate action remains a key part of his work.

“My focus is always, what can we control versus what can’t we control, and how do we respond to things,” Hendriksen said. “It’s always that mitigation and adaptation balance.” 

A July 2026 report by Statistics Canada found that across Canada, Indigenous communities were disproportionately impacted by the 2023 wildfire season. According to the report, 42 per cent of evacuations took place in communities where more than half the population was Indigenous. 

As well, Indigenous people were often evacuated to places far from their home communities, with families separated, causing psychological stress. Wildfires were among the top four extreme weather events most frequently reported by Indigenous people in 2023.

This past summer, Yellowknife was once again housing fire evacuees from Fort Simpson and Wrigley. 

Rebecca Alty, the member of parliament for the Northwest Territories and the minister for Crown-Indigenous relations, said the federal government understands that new infrastructure developments, particularly the Mackenzie Valley Highway, are “interconnected with climate change.” The goal, she says, is for the road to connect communities and also act as a climate solution. 

“Winter roads are becoming challenging for the winter resupply and the low water levels are challenging in the summer for the barge,” she said. A highway would address both seasonal concerns.

The work moving forward

Climate change may be the biggest problem facing communities across Canada’s North, according to Zachary Zimmermann, a researcher with the North American Arctic Security and Defence Network, or NAADSN. 

Born in Inuvik and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon, Zimmermann says there is a tendency to focus on “imagined threats” way more than other, more pressing issues. 

The history of Inuvik, meanwhile, involves adapting to the environment. The town was built by the federal government to replace Aklavik, a nearby community prone to flooding and erosion. While Aklavik still exists today, many Gwich’in and Inuvialuit families have moved to Inuvik, making it the largest community and administrative centre in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. 

Today, Clarkson said he has been working to address local challenges in Inuvik through the creation and implementation of a community energy plan. 

At the same time, the connection between Arctic security and climate change has not been a priority for the community. This is because, like many Canadians and citizens in other countries around the world, Clarkson said Inuvik residents find themselves focused on what it would mean to be taken over by China or Russia or, this past year, the United States. 

Such threats are real for the community given its history and location, Clarkson said, adding that the main concern for the community is that “we don’t want to be part of the U.S., and we don’t want to be part of China or Russia.” 

“What people also don’t realize is that because the Earth is round or semi-round … we are 10 degrees west of Vancouver, which puts us very close to Russia and China or anybody approaching from the western side, which are the two big threats,” he said. 

“But also because we have an all-season road — and then with the Mackenzie Valley highway being constructed — we’ll have a second all-season road, so it just makes Inuvik very strategic from an Arctic defence standpoint.” 

Improved emergency response

Clarkson said the community in Inuvik understands that Arctic security is a major way to secure federal infrastructure investments that are lacking and would greatly benefit the community. 

“People understand that if we’re going to spend billions of dollars in the Arctic, probably new schools, housing, hospitals, health centres — all of those things would be great to have … so we realize spending money on securing the Arctic is important [for us].”