A social justice group is accusing the N.W.T. government of giving “unprecedented and privileged access” to mining industry representatives as the territory develops new mining regulations.

“They’ve been meeting with the mining industry about once a month to talk about the mining regulations,” said Kevin O’Reilly, a former MLA who speaks for the advocacy group Alternatives North.

Last week, Alternatives North released more than 800 pages of documents it obtained through access to information requests. It says the documents, which include emails, presentation notes and meeting summaries, show the territorial government met mining industry representatives 11 times between August 2024 and September 2025, to discuss the development of the Mineral Resources Act.

The act, which has been under development for nearly a decade, would govern mineral resources and royalties in the territory.

O’Reilly says the meetings between government and industry representatives amount to “regulatory capture.” The term refers to a regulator being co-opted to serve the interests of industry, sidelining the public interest.

“The proposed royalty regime has been given to the mining industry. None of that information has been made available to the public,” said O’Reilly.

CBC News requested an interview with Industry Minister Caitlin Cleveland. Cabinet communications responded with a written statement Wednesday evening, saying the territorial government “does not agree with the characterization that engagement with industry stakeholders reflects undue influence over the process.”

The government said it’s standard practice to engage with those they regulate. It said implementing the Mineral Resources Act is a complex process that requires technical information, so that the regulations are practical and enforceable. 

O’Reilly says “it’s not an issue” for the government to meet with industry, he’s concerned about how it’s done.

“When it’s done secret, without anybody else having access to the same information, the interests of the mining industry seem to take over,” he said.

O’Reilly said the government’s “policy intention” documents mirror what industry wants. For example, he pointed to rules around what’s required for a company to keep a mining claim in good standing.

The industry department is tasked with securing development royalties, and making sure that Indigenous governments and the public see the benefits, said O’Reilly.

“They talk about improving the economic climate for mining and improving communications between the department and the mining industry. Well, what about the public?”

The government says it held a public engagement on the policy intentions. It also meets with Indigenous governments through the Intergovernmental Council to co-develop regulations.

The regulations will eventually go through a Section 35 consultation before the act is brought into force, the government states.

Long-standing critique

O’Reilly said the N.W.T. government did not engage with the public for nearly three years as it developed regulations to accompany the Mineral Resources Act.

O’Reilly has spoken up before about territorial legislators appearing to be too close with industry.

During the pandemic, the territorial government struck a focus group with industry leaders. The talks went beyond COVID-19 response, and included discussion about regulatory matters. The N.W.T. and Nunavut Chamber of Mines was able to lobby government officials ahead of a judicial review on land use permit extensions.

In 2022, when he was still an MLA, O’Reilly also said the government was opaque about more than 60 hours of closed-door meetings with industry, about developing the Mineral Resources Act.

Caroline Wawzonek, the industry minister at the time, said her department was diligently collaborating with the mineral resource industry, because it would be “the most impacted” by the regulations.

‘The public is often not mentioned’

The implementation of the Mineral Resources Act is intended to secure reasonable economic spinoffs from mining, collect adequate royalties, and ensure the territory is doing its best to prevent land-use conflicts, said O’Reilly.  

However, he said in the hundreds of pages of government correspondence obtained by Alternatives North, the word “public” appears only 48 times.

“The public is often not mentioned or only sort of appears as an afterthought,” he said.

O’Reilly says it’s also concerning that the documents show that some government staff agreed to sign non-disclosure agreements when meeting with industry representatives, and that meetings were not publicly disclosed.

An April 2025 email from the government’s royalty and resource policy manager to the N.W.T. and Nunavut Chamber of Mines states that the government is willing to enter non-disclosure agreements to discuss resource royalty calculations. CBC News contacted the government about this but did not receive a response before publication.

The chamber of mines also did not respond to a request for comment.

The government has argued in the past that there is delicate balance around public disclosure of mining royalty information.

Alternatives North is calling on the N.W.T. government to publicly release all submissions from non-government entities on regulatory development, and to disclose meetings and correspondence.

O’Reilly said a transparent regime will include a public registry with user-specific notifications. This will ensure people with lodges, cabins or who use certain areas will be notified if a claim is staked nearby, in case they want to question or appeal them.

Without a notification system, he said people would have to routinely check the registry for new claims.