Mackenzie River enters Canadian Heritage River process

The governments of Canada and the Northwest Territories have accepted the Mackenzie River’s nomination to the Canadian Heritage Rivers System, moving the waterway into a formal planning process.

The Parks Canada announcement published October 8 uses several names for the river, including Dehcho, Deho, Kuukpak, Nagwichoonjik, Grande Rivière and Fleuve Mackenzie.

Acceptance of the nomination is not the same as heritage-river designation. The next step is a stewardship plan, expected within three years and led by the territorial government with Indigenous governments, organizations and communities. The plan would then be reviewed before a designation decision.

The main stem runs just under 1,800 kilometres from Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. Its wider basin and tributaries extend about 4,200 kilometres and drain nearly one-fifth of Canada, according to the announcement. Canada currently has 42 designated heritage rivers.

Illustrative northern-river photo: Kristoffer Tuoma / Unsplash Licence. It is not identified as the Mackenzie River; cropped and resized for publication.