Cabin Talks

Claire McFarlane asks Indigenous services minister Mandy Gull-Masty what we can expect from coming changes to Jordan's Principle.Also in this episode: young skiers from Little Red River Cree Nation come to Yellowknife, and the authors of Talk Treaty To Me preview the launch of their book.

Remarks at a major conference on the Arctic appear to suggest the Arctic Corridor from Yellowknife to Nunavut's coast is on the way to getting a green light.Plus meet the Hay River author of an anthology about military life who's receiving national attention.

Christopher McMillan is the publisher of a new zine focused on Yellowknife music. He explores the concept with Cabin Radio's Miriam Bosiljevac.

The Arctic360 conference is under way in Toronto. What's the northern conversation like right now between governments, diplomats and businesses?Plus Jully Black talks to Aastha Sethi about playing Yellowknife's Black History Month gala.

Let's do an economy episode. Caroline Wawzonek sets out the GNWT's financial approach to the next year, ministers explain what they're doing to ramp up critical minerals in the North, and we spend time at a bioenergy summit in Yellowknife.

A power outage threw Yellowknife's Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre into darkness just as kids aged seven to 13 from Mildred Hall School were unveiling a special week-long exhibit about the Ice Age and Earth's history.Join Cabin Radio's Jasmine Nasogaluak and Aastha Sethi as they learn more about the students' exhibit and why it earned a place in "the big leagues" at the NWT's largest museum.

Jacob Charpentier, Jesse Wheeler and Julian Morse explain why Yellowknife's only movie theatre closing would be so damaging to the community in their eyes.Plus Emily Blake checks out a snowboarding clinic at a former gravel pit that's billed as an inclusive way into the sport.

Yellowknife resident Cat McGurk entered a snow sculpting contest in Minnesota – only to find a state tormented by ICE's killings on the streets, and a sculpture destroyed at the organizers' behest. Also in this episode: how Becca Denley wants to turn parking spaces into green spaces in the NWT capital this summer.

The Capitol Theatre, Yellowknife's only movie theatre, will close on March 31. It had been losing money for years. Theatre general manager Chris Wood joined Ollie to talk about why it's going away.

Billions of dollars in spending appears headed for Yellowknife and Inuvik to ramp up the Canadian Armed Forces' presence and enforce Arctic sovereignty. To what extent is this the North's next big economic driver? The two communities' mayors took our questions.

Norman Wells is losing its wells. Does that mean it's losing everything? Imperial Oil announced on Friday it will end operations at its Norman Wells facility, which is more than a century old, later this year. Norman Wells exists because of the oil field, so our reporters asked residents and leaders what this means for the community.

Harley Minakis and his family were travelling home from a trip to Costa Rica for a wedding. Their return involved a short layover in Houston, Texas before catching a flight to Toronto. That's when Minakis, who is Gwich'in, says he was detained at the airport by US border agents. Here's the story.Plus: how two NWT jerseys ended up being worn by Connor McDavid, and why the Northern Journalism Training Initiative is closing.

Sydney Galusha and Brynn Chorostkowski are 16. Ella Skauge is 17. They are three fifths of the NWT's Team Kaufman at Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the women's curling national championship that starts on Friday. Meet the team here.

What can Yellowknife and the NWT learn from the Nordic countries about defence and emergencies? Ambassadors from Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland and Finland were in the territorial capital this week.Plus AFN National Chief Cindy Woodhouse condemns Trump over Greenland as she opens the Dene National Assembly in Fort Good Hope, and we'll hear some of Prime Minister Mark Carney's World Economic Forum speech that resonated worldwide on the same day.And the new chair of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation will be Erwin Elias. Hear a little of his pitch to voters this week.

The NWT's MP joins Ollie to preview 2026, walk us through her priorities and discuss how Canada should be responding to US threats toward Greenland.Plus Janet Dean explains why her Territorial Agri-food Association has decided Yellowknife needs a new coffee festival. And if you hadn't previously heard of civet coffee... well, you might be surprised.

Kenny Ruptash has had about eight months as chair of Aurora College's board of governors. What does he want the college to achieve this year? Should it move its Yellowknife campus to a downtown mall? What about its Inuvik and Fort Smith campuses? And will it ever become a polytechnic university as planned? He joined us to talk about those topics.Plus Yellowknife's mayor and city manager take questions after City Hall announced elevated lead levels had been found in the water at some municipal facilities.

A compilation album being released this month promises to unite 30 bands from the past 30 years of NWT music history. Tyler WhiteKeyes tells us more.Plus: If someone sent you a voice note in Finnish, how would you dance to that? A Yellowknifer and a Thai-Norwegian are at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre, figuring out the answer.

Air Tindi president Chris Reynolds walks us through how the airline responded to a crash that investigators say highlighted a problematic safety culture. The investigation report came out this week. Reynolds said big changes have been made since the accident.And Dian Papineau-Magill looks back at CKHR, the Hay River community radio station, which is no more. After years off the air, the CRTC has revoked CKHR's licence at its own request. The station was nearly 50 years old.

It's 10 years since Brenda Dragon started Aurora Heat, a Fort Smith-based firm making beaver fur hand warmers and related products.A decade on, the company is targeting people with chilly hands across the continent. Here's how. (Plus: Brenda describes how she's dealing with the stigma fur still attracts in places online.)

NEW NORTHERN PODCAST ALERT! Melaw Nakehk'o and Brie O'Keefe are rewatching CBC classic North of 60, set in a Dehcho village. Episode one is out today. Here's what to expect. Listen to Lynx River Revisited here. New episodes weekly!

Mahalia Yakeleya Newmark is Tulı́t'a Dene. She describes her life's work as being reconciliation and advocacy for murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls.Following the death of Tara Carpenter in Inuvik, Yakeleya Newmark is calling for a renewed focus on MMIWG and violence in the North.In an interview with Cabin Radio, she set out the steps she believes leaders and residents can take to help avoid tragedies and help families who are dealing with this form of loss.

What did you do with your weekend? Meet some Yellowknifers who spent their Saturday trying to run 6.7 km every hour for 24 hours at Yellowknife's ski club. The winner ran more than 107 km in 16 hours.

The History Channel's reality show Ice Road Truckers is back after an eight-year hiatus – and it has a new Yellowknife driver in the hot seat.The legendary Alex Debogorski may no longer be a star, but Scott Yuill has stepped up to represent the NWT. He joined Ollie to talk about the new season, which debuts on October 1, 2025.

What if all the foliage we clear to protect northern communities from wildfires was turned into biomass? This researcher at the Canadian Forest Service says by "collecting less than one percent of the biomass identified at high risk of wildfire, most communities could completely replace their annual fossil fuel needs." Now, he's looking for communities to take part in a pilot.

Jamie Fulford, deputy minister of the GNWT department responsible for lead testing in schools, is asked how the tests went from a well-intended pilot project to the centre of a government crisis over the past week – and what parents need to know.Read more about the tests on the Cabin Radio website.

Smith's Landing First Nation is now Tthebatthıe Dënésułıné Nation. Chief Thaidene Paulette explains why the First Nation took that step and how the new name was chosen.

Ben Hendriksen is Yellowknife's mayor for 18 months after a process in which just five people could vote. Listen to the Mornings at the Cabin team inspect his credentials, plus hear the speeches Hendriksen and his two rivals for the job gave to their fellow councillors, whose votes they needed.

NWT chief public health officer Dr Kami Kandola joins Ollie to discuss what you need to know about a confirmed measles case in Yellowknife.

Our reporter Claire McFarlane spent the past two weeks hearing from voters in Hay River, Inuvik, Norman Wells, Whatì and Fort Simpson about how they see this federal election and the NWT's candidates.Here's Claire's debrief with Ollie. Based on what she heard, did we learn anything about which candidate might have the edge? How engaged are NWT voters? Plus Jasmine Nasogaluak finds out what young Yellowknifers would do if they had the power to vote in this election.

Ollie hosts Cabin Radio's 2025 live election debate for candidates in the Northwest Territories. Here's the full show as broadcast from 8-9pm on April 10, 2025.

Listen to our full interviews with the NWT's candidates in the 2025 federal election: Rebecca Alty, Kimberly Fairman, Kelvin Kotchilea and Rainbow Eyes (Angela Davidson).We'll have more next week, too, after our live election debate – which you can catch on Cabin Radio from 8pm MT on Thursday, April 10.

Fifteen minutes looking at Donald Trump's tariffs through the lens of Yellowknife's only bookstore. (And no, they don't carry any books on tariffs.)

Witnessing the death of two fellow firefighters in 2005 was the start of Seann May's long journey into post-traumatic stress disorder and treatment. Now a deputy fire chief in Yellowknife, Sean joined Ollie to talk about what happened to him and the importance of giving first responders help to process the work they do.

Photographers Pat Kane and Amber Bracken are two of Canada's finest. Pat invited Amber to Yellowknife as part of the city's Far North Photo Festival, and the two joined Cabin Radio's Jesse Wheeler and Scott Letkeman to talk about how they see their identity as photographers – and what it takes to just switch off when your job is about framing the world around you.

Sarah Erasmus describes the motivations driving her into "the next chapter" – which means closing her Erasmus Apparel storefront in Yellowknife after nearly 15 years.

Chief Supt Dyson Smith is in charge of RCMP in the Northwest Territories. How are police trying to meet the demands of northern community leaders? How are RCMP trying to close a 25% vacancy rate? What's the threat of drugs to small communities, should bail be reformed, and why do a significant number of cases collapse when they end up in front of a judge? We asked him.

Kathleen Lippa was a reporter at Northern News Services in 2003 when she first heard the name Ed Horne. More than two decades later – after many interviews, much research and a fight to unseal court records – she is publishing a book titled Arctic Predator.

Hot Frosty is a 2024 festive hit and Yellowknife's Dustin Milligan is the desirable ice sculpture-turned-man who stars in it. Dustin joined Cabin Radio's Clams 'n' Moose to talk about the movie and more.

Multiple Northwest Territories MLAs say the new Indigenous employment policy being rolled out by the NWT government gets it wrong. Richard Edjericon and Kieron Testart, two MLAs who oppose the policy, join Cabin Talks to discuss their concerns. Caroline Wawzonek, the minister responsible for the policy, tells us why she believes it's the right path forward.

Up Here, a magazine that covers Canada's North, is coming back to the NWT less than a year after it was sold to a Yukon-based company. Meet the new owners.

"We play this giant game of Tetris constantly." Kyle Thomas talks about growing Bush Order Provisions, a Yellowknife market garden, bakery and farm store, and the health of the city's urban agriculture economy.

Yellowknife composer and performer Carmen Braden's fourth studio album, A Hard Light, just came out. Join a listening party featuring Braden, producer Mark Adam and Cabin Radio's Ollie Williams. We'll go track by track through the album: hear the music with commentary from the people who made it. This is excerpted from Afternoons at the Cabin, broadcast live on Cabin Radio on the afternoon of December 10, 2024. Listen live via the Cabin Radio website or get the app.

We tried a lighthearted Youth Parliament story. Not everyone loved it. So we talked to the NWT's Speaker of the House about how we get and nurture politicians.

The Northwest Territories has one type of snake – the red-sided garter snake – and it lives around Fort Smith, an area pummelled by wildfires last year. How are the snakes coping with that? Are they in trouble or are things OK? Johanna Stewart is a master's student in environment science whose job is to spend two years out there among the snakes, tracking them and learning what's actually going on. We interviewed Johanna three times over the course of this year to figure out how that research works, what Johanna is looking for, and what we know so far. Plus you'll meet Big Bertha, a snake with a past.

Lee Selleck was a journalist in Yellowknife when, after a bitter and months-long strike, nine people were killed in an explosion at Giant Mine in 1992. He and Francis Thompson wrote a book about Giant, Dying for Gold, five years later. Now, the pair are releasing an updated version. Lee tells us what the updated book covers, how it felt to be a part of the recent CBC podcast series about Giant, and whether he and the city have ever really moved on from what happened on September 18, 32 years ago.

Viking men have spent a millennium getting all the credit. What were the women doing? We take a break from our usual northern news diet to meet Canadian author Heather Pringle, whose new book – The Northwomen: Untold Stories From the Other Half of the Viking World – uses archaeology, Icelandic sagas and even old cannabis seeds to tell us more about the power some Viking women held. Spoiler alert: contains sorcery.