Prime Minister Mark Carney visits his birthplace in Northwest Territories

Prime Minister Mark Carney is scheduled to make a visit to his birthplace of Fort Smith as he travels across the 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 was set to head to Inuvik in the territory’s northwest corner in late afternoon Wednesday.

The prime minister is set to co-host the Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee on Thursday with Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, a national organization representing Inuit.

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.

-- Written by Dylan Robertson in Ottawa and Jeff McIntosh in Fort Smith

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