Native-owned Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (IRC) will have a role in project approvals under a new pact with Canadian officials – if natural gas and oil development, as well as pipeline proposals, return to the Mackenzie Delta and Beaufort Sea.

The Western Arctic-Tariuq Offshore Accord was clinched between the IRC, the federal government, as well as the Northwest Territories and Yukon provinces. The accord specifies fossil fuel supply management and revenue sharing. 

“This agreement, the first of its kind with an Indigenous government as a full party, assures shared decision making concerning oil and gas rights,” the parties said in a joint statement. 

“The accord ensures that Inuvialuit, along with residents of Yukon and the Northwest Territories, are the primary...