On May 30^th, 2019, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs will present the Northwest Territories (NWT) 2019 Outstanding Volunteer Awards at a ceremony in Yellowknife.  These annual awards provide an opportunity to show our appreciation to volunteers and volunteer organizations for their outstanding contributions in communities across the territory.

 MACA presents the NWT Outstanding Volunteer Awards annually to one individual, one youth, one elder, and one group who have helped improve the quality of life in the NWT through volunteerism.

Gates will swing open at most parks across the Northwest Territories this week as camping season officially gets underway. 

Parks in the South Slave, North Slave and Sahtu began welcoming overnight guests on Wednesday, May 15^th, 2019. All NWT parks will be open by June 1^st, 2019.

With more than $7 million in planned and continuing investments in world-class parks infrastructure, NWT park users will notice improvements completed and underway – all of which are being done to improve experiences for visitors and residents alike.

Yellowknife Airport continues to focus on improvements that contribute to better passenger experience.  Necessary upgrades are being made to the regular baggage screening system.  As a result, passengers with checked baggage are asked to arrive 90-minutes before their scheduled departure time to avoid delays. During this phase of the upgrades, passengers are required to have their bags tagged at the airline counter before bringing them to the oversized baggage area for screening. This phase of the project is scheduled to continue until the end of May.

The Government of the Northwest Territories has released the first of two videos explaining the methods used to estimate barren-ground caribou populations in the Northwest Territories (NWT).

Numbers of barren-ground caribou are in decline across the NWT, with the most rapid and significant declines in the Bathurst and Bluenose-East herds. The latest estimates from surveys conducted in 2018 showed that both herds have decreased by half or more in just three years.

Minister of Health and Social Services Glen Abernethy has released the new 2019 Health and Social Services Northwest Territories Help Directory. The Help Directory is available in print and online in both English and French.

The Help Directory is designed to assist NWT residents by providing up-to-date contact information on health services available to them. The 2019 edition includes new information such as the:

On May 8^th, 2019 at 1:55pm, the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) will issue a live test of NWT Alert Ready, the Northwest Territories public alerting system. Residents may see and hear the public alert test on wireless devices, radio stations and cable networks across the NWT.

NWT Alert Ready is being developed to provide public alerts to NWT residents during emergencies and disasters and is part of the national public alerting system “Alert Ready”. The system is currently under development with full implementation expected in 2019.

The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) is calling for applications for the 2019-2020 Non-Government Organization (NGO) Stabilization Fund.

The NGO Stabilization Fund provides special funding to help NGOs that deliver critical GNWT-funded programs or services to the public to stabilize or develop their capacity to manage programs and services.

The Department of Health and Social Services announces changes to the Medical Travel Program effective June 1, 2019. NWT residents have access to one of the most generous medical travel programs in Canada, which has remained relatively unchanged since 1995. To bring the cost-share of medical travel costs into alignment with current travel costs of the Medical Travel Program, adjustment to the co-payment rate is being made.

A fire at the Mackenzie Place Apartments (also known as the Hay River High-Rise) on March 15, 2019, resulted in extensive damage to the 11^th floor and below and displaced approximately  150 residents. Since the building’s evacuation, the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) has been working with the Town of Hay River to support the displaced tenants.

The Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) has taken action to support its mineral exploration sector by extending a successful program for two years.

The Work Credit Program (WCP), originally introduced in 2015 to offset costs for mineral explorers since a downturn in the financial markets, will be extended for two years beginning April 1, 2019 to continue to encourage more exploration.