Mackenzie Wild

What is Mackenzie WILD?

Deh Cho, the Mackenzie River, is Canada’s wildest big river flowing through globally important forests and tundra teeming with caribou, moose, geese, wolves, and bears. Indigenous People have conserved and stewarded the lands, waters and wildlife of the Mackenzie Valley from time immemorial.

Sierra Club Canada believes that the proposed $16 billion Mackenzie Gas Project brings significant sustainability challenges to the North, for Canada and the planet, harming ecosystems and wildlife and disrupting communities, while creating few permanent jobs in the Northwest Territories.

The Mackenzie WILD program says that oil and gas industrialization is not the only option for the North.

Mackenzie WILD envisages a future for the Mackenzie Valley in which biodiversity and ecological integrity are maintained, sustainable and healthy communities are developed, rights of Indigenous People are respected, and Canada keeps its commitments to protect our climate by upholding our legal responsibilities under the the Kyoto Protocol.

How to keep the Mackenzie WILD

To support Canada’s commitments to protect the global atmosphere, governments must guarantee that any Mackenzie gas that is produced is used to displace carbon-intensive fuels such as coal and oil and not be used to fuel expansion of tar sands developments.



To protect the biodiversity and ecology of the Mackenzie Valley, governments must ensure that:

  • Cumulative environmental effects of developments such as the MGP are assessed and mitigated; and
  • An interconnected network of protected areas is established.

To ensure sustainable, healthy Mackenzie Valley communities, governments must:

  • Promote community-controlled land use planning;
  • Invest in green energy initiatives.

To respect the rights of Mackenzie Valley Indigenous Peoples, governments must:

  • Ensure full partnership of Indigenous People’s organizations in directing environmental assessments; and
  • Incorporate traditional environmental knowledge into environmental assessments.

Read more background information on the Mackenzie Gas Project