Here are some of the N.W.T.'s biggest stories of 2025
CBC
Every year, CBC North publishes hundreds of stories online — breaking news, investigative reporting, political coverage, community features, longform storytelling, and much more.
Some of those stories reach a huge audience, with hundreds of thousands more readers than actually live in the North.
Here are a few of the biggest stories we reported on in the Northwest Territories last year.
It was another difficult wildfire season for people living the Northwest Territories.
Just a few days apart, both Fort Providence and Whatı̀, N.W.T., residents were forced to leave their communities as wildfires came dangerously close.
Residents of both communities were able to return home eventually, but spent more than a week displaced.
As the Sahtu community struggled with sky-rocketing costs, MLA Danny McNeely brought forward a motion in February saying that rising food insecurity and heating costs, along with increasingly unreliable infrastructure for resupply, were making life and business in Norman Wells, N.W.T., extremely difficult.
The N.W.T. government said rising costs in Norman Wells didn't meet the territory's definition of an emergency, and that declaring a state of emergency in the Sahtu community wouldn't help residents much anyway.
Months earlier, a local state of emergency had been declared by Norman Wells Town councillors.
A new "extremely toxic and unpredictable mixture" of opioids emerged from a crack cocaine sample in Hay River, N.W.T., this fall.
The territory's chief public health officer said the sample came back positive for carfentanil, remifentanil, and cocaine — the first time this combination had been detected in cocaine in the territory.
Dr. Kami Kandola. warned residents about carfentanil mixed with powdered cocaine found in drugs seized in the community.
The warning came amid an ongoing drug crisis in the N.W.T., which has seen numerous drug busts this year and more than 20 non-fatal overdoses since October.
This month CBC North visited Hay River to speak with people affected by the crisis, including people who use drugs.
A washout has closed Highway 16 on Haida Gwaii as a round of heavy rain lashes B.C.'s North Coast.
Environment Canada's wind warning for Toronto has ended, but high winds and power outages persist across Ontario Monday evening as areas north of the city for snow squalls.
The national RCMP union is criticizing what it calls a "misleading" report that urges Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's government to continue steps to ditch the Mounties.
Toronto police said a man is in custody in connection with a suspected arson at a federal government office building in North York Monday.
Yellowknife RCMP say that no one was seriously injured after an allegedly impaired driver rammed her car into and through the front entrance of the Explorer Hotel on Christmas Eve.
Members of a Canadian delegation that was denied entry to the West Bank earlier this month are calling on Ottawa to tighten sanctions targeting new Israeli settlements in occupied territory.
Vendors at the Charlottetown Farmers’ Market are coming together for a one-time pop-up event this week after a fire forced the market to close indefinitely.
Many people associate Calgary's warm chinook winds with the onset of headaches, but experts say the science behind the correlation remains unclear.
Seabridge Gold says it plans to spin out its large but somewhat sidelined Courageous Lake gold project in the Northwest Territories into a new standalone company named Valor Gold, subject to regulatory approvals.
Sitting in Ottawa's Rainbow Bistro, preparing for his band to play a gig, former MP Charlie Angus was reflecting on the past year. His plan to quietly retire and write a book turned into creating viral videos viewed around the world and a cross-Canada tour to fight Donald Trump.
This fall, the Alberta government invoked the notwithstanding clause to force teachers back to work.
Plunging temperatures and strong winds are causing power outages in northern sections of the GTA Monday, following a storm system that brought night of heavy rain.
Bundle up, Londoners—meteorologists say Monday's fresh blast of winter weather is but the beginning of what's expected to be a highly active season to come.