Prime Minister Mark Carney visits his birthplace in Northwest Territories

FORT SMITH — Prime Minister Mark Carney visited the town where he was born Wednesday, as he travels across the Northwest Territories.

Carney spent his early childhood in Fort Smith, south of Yellowknife along the Alberta boundary, before he moved with his family to Edmonton.

On Wednesday he visited the town’s community centre, spoke with children attending a local summer camp and discussed affordability issues and employment with their parents.

In the lobby, a woman held a sign expressing opposition to Bill C-5, the government’s major projects legislation.

He also spoke with passersby in the town and with locals gathered at the local Berro’s Pizza restaurant, where a meat-topped pizza had been rebranded as the “Carneyvore.”

Carney also met with Northwest Territories Premier R.J. Simpson and discussed wildfires with community leaders. He headed to Inuvik in the territory’s northwest corner Wednesday evening.

There, he toured a community centre with Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, a national organization representing Inuit.

The prime minister is set to co-host the Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee on Thursday with Obed.

It will be Carney’s second meeting with Indigenous groups on Bill C-5, which gives Ottawa the ability to fast-track projects it deems to be in the national interest by sidestepping some review requirements.

Speaking with reporters, Obed said Inuit have questions about the legislation, particularly how it might affect their modern treaties and land claim agreements, and their role in “one Canadian economy.”

“We want to come back to a central place within this discussion and to be meaningful partners in the path ahead,” he said.

“We can meet Canada where Canada wants to be. It just means that it is going to have to follow the agreements that it signed with us.”

— By Dylan Robertson in Ottawa, Jeff McIntosh in Fort Smith and Aaron Sousa in Inuvik.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 23, 2025.

Canadian Press Staff, The Canadian Press