Economist: Nunavut should get more mining money

Inuit associations and the Government of Nunavut should get more money from the mining industry, according to economist Erin Weir.

Weir, a senior associate at SILO Strategy and former NDP MP from Saskatchewan, presented his research on royalty payments during the Nunavut Mining Symposium on April 20.

“Both Inuit organizations and the Government of Nunavut are receiving only a tiny percentage of the value of minerals being extracted from the territory,” Weir said.

AGNICO EAGLE

In 2024, between property taxes and royalties, Agnico Eagle paid $90 million to Inuit associations and the government, well up from $72.3 million in 2023, according to Weir’s research. But even though the dollar figure went up, Nunavummiut actually got a smaller piece of the pie, Weir explained.

Just 5.2 per cent of profits from Agnico Eagle’s Nunavut operations were paid to Inuit associations and the government in 2024, while 8.2 per cent was paid in 2023.

That’s because royalties are calculated by revenue, or total money being generated, and not profit, Weir explained.

The increasing price of gold resulted in higher profits for Agnico Eagle, according to Weir, but Nunavummiut received a smaller share of those profits as they increased.

“There are tremendous social and economic needs in the territory. The more than doubling of gold prices in the past two years has created huge windfall profits at Nunavut’s gold mines,” Weir said.

Just over half of the Agnico Eagle royalties from Nunavut went to the Kivalliq Inuit Association, while a third went to Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI), and the rest was divided among the territorial government, the Kitikmeot Inuit Association and the federal government.

BAFFINLAND IRON MINES

The picture is similar with Baffinland Iron Mines, but with less publicly available detail because Baffinland is a private company.

Baffinland paid the government $16.7 million and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association (QIA) $13.8 million in 2023, Weir said.

That works out to 5.3 per cent of Baffinland’s total value created from its Mary River mine.

Payments to the QIA rose slightly to $14.7 million in 2024, but Weir said he couldn’t find public data on how much was paid to the government that year.

“Baffinland has also put a fact sheet up on its website showing that in 2023 it paid the Government of Nunavut a further almost $17 billion. Now this amount would include things like fuel tax and payroll tax that are not typically considered as compensation for the resources extracted,” Weir said.

He did not include B2Gold’s Goose mine in his presentation because that project only entered commercial production in 2025.

Public data on how much mining companies paid in royalties last year is not yet available, Weir explained.

“My suggestion is that Inuit organizations and the Government of Nunavut can and should extract much better return from this resource,” Weir said.

He said that Nunavummiut could get more money from mining companies by tying royalties to profits, rather than to the pre-expense revenue generated from the operation.

NEGOTIATING A FAIR PRICE

Inuit Impact Benefit Agreements (IIBA) are mandatory in Nunavut for all developments on Inuit land.

Negotiations for the agreements are made between the developer and regional Inuit associations, to ensure local benefits.

In the mining industry, multinational companies negotiating IIBAs are much larger than regional Inuit associations.

“I think that we need to find some kind of way for regional Inuit associations and the territorial government to co-ordinate to make sure that as a whole, they’re collecting a fair return from resources that ultimately belong to Nunavut,” Weir said.

COMPARED TO ONTARIO AND QUEBEC

Agnico Eagle produces the same amount of gold in Nunavut as it does in both Ontario and Quebec, Weir said.

But the royalty payments in each jurisdiction are different.

In Nunavut, royalties to Inuit associations and the government are $100 per ounce of gold, in Ontario they’re $116 per ounce, and in Quebec royalties are $160 per ounce of gold. Weir explained that Quebec was an outlier because the province collects its own corporate income tax.

“That comparison to other jurisdictions kind of reinforces the idea that there’s room for Inuit organizations, and/or the Government of Nunavut, to collect a better return from these resources,” Weir said.

In 2024, Agnico Eagle’s cost to produce an ounce of gold from its Ontario operations was $734. In Quebec, that figure was $898. In Nunavut, it was $921.

SCALE OF THE SECTOR

Nunavut relies more on mining than any other territory or province in Canada.

A whopping 41 per cent of Nunavut’s gross domestic product comes from the mining industry.

Weir pointed to Baffinland’s upcoming Steensby railway expansion to illustrate how much mineral value is in Nunavut.

Baffinland has said the expansion will increase its iron ore production by five times its current rate.

“That would work out to $3 billion Canadian of iron being extracted from the territory. So we might ask, ‘What kind of a return is Nunavut receiving from that iron production?’” Weir said.

As for Agnico Eagle, its mine production hasn’t changed much recently. But what has changed is the price of gold, which has skyrocketed as global uncertainty pushes investors to a safehaven commodity.

“Just from the increase in gold prices over the past couple of years, we have a windfall of an additional $2.8 billion dollars (to Agnico Eagle). Looking at Nunavut’s last territorial budget, $2.8 billion is the total amount of money that the territory got from the federal government. In other words, it’s almost the whole territorial budget,” Weir said.

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In the 2025-26 GN budget, Nunavut received $2.8 billion from the federal government and generated $580 million itself.

Weir has worked as an economist for the federal government, the Canadian Labour Congress, the United Steel Workers, and was a elected as an NDP Member of Parliament for Regina–Lewvan in 2015, serving four years.

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