Dene Nation frustrated by GNWT’s ‘diluted’ approach to Indigenous procurement policy

By Kody Ferron, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Yellowknifer The Dene Nation is expressing its “profound disappointment and frustration” in the GNWT’s failure to implement an Indigenous procurement policy. In 2021, an independent panel made recommendations to the GNWT to revise and better implement its Indigenous procurement policy. As of July 2026, the GNWT has announced that it will not implement any such policy. Instead, it has modified its definition of an Indigenous business and has scrapped plans to implement an Indigenous procurement policy entirely. On July 28, the Dene Nation ex…