Friends and colleagues identified Shannon Ciboci as the Inuvik mother who died in a tragic vehicle incident near Pelly Crossing in Yukon.

Pelly Crossing , along with two community nurses and emergency medical staff, attended the scene of a collision at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 26.

Upon arrival at the scene, a 23-year-old woman was located deceased outside an older GMC truck from the Northwest Territories.

The other occupants of the vehicle, a 33-year-old male driver and two-year-old passenger, sustained injuries and were transported to Whitehorse General Hospital by air ambulance for treatment.

An collision analyst attended the scene and determined that the vehicle was travelling southbound on the Klondike Highway, heading towards Whitehorse, when it left the road and rolled into the ditch. There was significant damage to the vehicle.

The cause of the collision was still under investigation at press time.

Ciboci was mother to three children.

Fire danger high

As of Aug. 7, there had been 22 fires to date in the Inuvik region this summer.

Twenty of them are out, with two being monitored for 'values protection', the GNWT's term for the properties and areas it intends to protect.

One fire was approximately 13 km north of Tsiigehtchic at 22,200 hectares on Aug. 7. There was no threat to properties at the time of reporting.

Another fire was 23 km south of Fort McPherson at 6,598 hectares. That fire had values protection work being done on cabins in the area.

In the territory as a whole, 194 fires have been reported this summer, affecting 368,887 hectares. Seventy-seven fires had been declared out, three were under control, four were being fought and 110 were being monitored for values protection.

Millions in gas tax funding

The Government of Canada will be delivering more than $15.7 million in funding through the federal gas tax fund to communities in the Northwest Territories this year.

In July, the government delivered the first of the two annual payments.

The funding, which flows through the territorial government, is made available to support community infrastructure projects.

This yearSA国际影视传媒檚 funding per community:

Inuvik - $1,264,000

Fort McPherson - $396,000

Tuktoyaktuk - $386,000

Aklavik - $324,000

Ulukhaktok - $272,000

Paulatuk - $219,000

Tsiigehtchic - $75,000

NWT GDP at 12.2 per cent

With the Gahcho Kue diamond mine entering full production this year, the territorySA国际影视传媒檚 GDP is burning hot at 12.2 per cent this year, according to the Conference Board of Canada.

Yukon, by contrast, can expect a mild contraction of 0.7 per cent this year, while Nunavut will expand by 6.4 per cent thanks to planned mineral production increases at Meadowbank and Mary River.

Though growth for the NWT looks high for 2017, the future is not as encouraging.

No metal mines have been in operation since the Cantung mine closed in 2015, and oil and gas production continues to decline. The NWTSA国际影视传媒檚 GDP is forecast to decline by an average of 1.7 per cent annually over 2018-20.

SA国际影视传媒淲ith the diamond mining industry maturing and Diavik ceasing operations around 2025, the remainder of the Northwest TerritoriesSA国际影视传媒� economy will struggle,SA国际影视传媒� states the report.

The territorySA国际影视传媒檚 construction industry is expected to continue its decline this year, while an aging population and declining mining output will limit job creation over the next 15 years.