NWT says it’s ‘now or never’ for big projects as northern cities team up – Cabin Radio
February 12, 2026
The moment has arrived to make huge investments in northern infrastructure that have been talked about her entire life, NWT industry minister Caitlin Cleveland told Canadian and Arctic leaders on Wednesday.
Describing a “very painful circle” of chasing funding and preparing business cases, Cleveland told Toronto’s Arctic 360 conference “it feels like it’s now or never” in the current geopolitical environment.
“You need to do all the explorations and cross all the ‘t’s and dot all the ‘i’s, and I’ll bet you that back when we built the Trans-Canada Highway, we weren’t doing that. We just knew that it needed to get done – and that’s where we are with the North,” the minister told former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole during a panel about collaboration on defence spending.
