Mineral development can cause significant changes to an environmental landscape, damage life-supporting ecosystems, create major environmental risks, and reduce our planets environmental health. Our technologies continue to improve, making us more efficient in terms of water, air and energy usage; yet to meet our growing demand our mines have grown significantly in size and scale. From this, our overall strain on the environment continues to grow as well (GHG emissions, water usage, mine footprint, etc.) (Bardi, 2013). Strong environmental sustainability in mining is essential for a thriving local community and a social license to operate during all stages of the mine life-cycle. This research explores how mines should make decisions on prioritization of environmental work. In addition, what are the key environmental risks to review when managing environmental sustainability in different situations. CITATION:Collins, B C and Kumral, M, 2019. How should we make decisions and prioritize environmental sustainability in the Canadian North?, in Proceedings 9th International Conference on Sustainable Development in the Minerals Industry, pp 3638 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).