Following meetings with the Taltson Steering Committee in Yellowknife last week, there is renewed momentum behind the Taltson Hydro Expansion Project and a clearer path for the work ahead.

Taltson is foundational to the Northwest Territories’ clean energy future. It would expand hydro capacity, connect 11 communities through an integrated hydro grid, improve reliability, reduce diesel use, and support responsible economic development. It will help position the Northwest Territories as a key part of Canada’s Arctic and economic security.

The question is why now?

The answer is that important pieces are starting to come together. On March 12, 2026, the Government of Canada referred Taltson to the federal Major Projects Office, recognizing the project’s national importance and creating a coordinated federal table to help advance funding, financing, regulatory, commercial, and project development issues.

The project is moving forward through partnership. Indigenous partners are engaged in commercial discussions and have demonstrated strong interest in moving toward a defined partnership model, governance structure, and long-term commercial arrangement. The Commercial Working Group is now focused on the practical decisions needed to determine how the project could be governed, financed, owned, and delivered.

At the same time, Canada, the GNWT, and Indigenous partners are continuing discussions on historic legacy issues connected to the existing Taltson facility. Advancing the project does not mean setting aside the past. It means addressing those issues properly, with the right partners at the table, while building a stronger path forward.

Technical and environmental work is progressing simultaneously. Environmental baseline work north and south of Great Slave Lake is underway to support future regulatory applications, including a water license, land use permit, and Environmental Assessment Initiation Package. Field work is expected to begin this summer, with a regulatory application targeted for the first quarter of 2027.

Work is advancing on transmission routing and connection options in the Yellowknife area, along with a hydrology study of the Taltson watershed that includes community engagement and traditional knowledge gathering.

Taltson remains complex, and there is still significant work ahead before any construction decision can be made. But the project now has a level of momentum it has not had in years.

The referral to the Major Projects Office, progress with Indigenous partners, commercial structuring, legacy discussions, and technical and environmental work all point in the same direction: Taltson is advancing.

Our communities need reliable and affordable power. Our economy needs clean energy to grow. Canada needs northern infrastructure that strengthens Arctic sovereignty, supports critical mineral development, and builds a more secure national economy.

Taltson can help meet those needs.

The GNWT will continue to work with Indigenous government partners, Canada, the Canada Infrastructure Bank, industry, communities, and residents to advance this project in a way that is responsible, practical, and grounded in partnership.

This is how we move from ambition to delivery and how we build the clean-energy backbone for the next Northwest Territories economy.

Media requests, please contact:
Cabinet Communications
Government of the Northwest Territories
PressSecretary@gov.nt.ca