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Basement tourist centre not a permanent fix

In the age of the Internet, is a bricks-mortar building where tourists pick up maps and ask for tips on attractions still needed?

If the answer is yes, is hiding one in the basement at city hall the best solution?

In Yellowknife, it has been determined that a visitors centre is desired, and would be used. And placing it in the basement of city hall was a desperation move born of necessity.

The visitors centre was moved to city hall from the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre last fall where it was being housed as a temporary measure after it was learned the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre overlooking Frame Lake had irreparable structural issues that made the building unsafe.

Senior Administrative Officer Sheila Bassi-Kellett called the move to the ground floor of city hall a “triage” effort. Triage is what you do when trying to stabilize the patient not send them home from hospital with a bouquet of flowers.

Yet, nearly a year after the Frontier Visitors Association raised the alarm about its doomed facility, no plan exists to replace it. Adding to the uncertainty is the lack of a decision by the territorial government on what to do with $160,000 in annual funding the visitor centre receives. The city got $80,000 last fall to care for it at city hall until the end of March but no agreement has been reached beyond that.

The brinkmanship is truly worrying when one considers the impact tourism has had on the city in recent years.

Figures from the city show in 2016, 70,000 visitors came to Yellowknife and spent over $90 million.

That same year, the visitors centre claims it saw 50,000 people come through the doors, despite its crumbling building.

Last fall, Bassi-Kellett suggested after the March 31 deadline, the city would look for an "external provider" to deliver tourism services, with the city overseeing the project and providing "high-level direction."

It's good the city is showing leadership on this file but we have to ask where the GNWT fits into all of this? You know, the $1.7 billion government that owns the department with the word “tourism” in its title.

City councillor Adrian Bell worries the GNWT is trying to offload responsibility to the city. We share that concern.

The government was happy for years to throw a few bucks at it while turning a blind eye as the visitors centre competed with the private sector by selling souvenirs and trinkets to tourists to help stay afloat. So its lack of initiative now that the facility is boarded up and sinking into a swamp is not surprising.

It's nonetheless shameful, however. The GNWT can remain a silent partner if it wants to but the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment should at least come up with a plan on how to replace it – and provide its share of funding.

Only the territorial government has the expertise, the resources and the manpower to pull this off. City taxpayers want city hall to focus on fixing potholes, and now that it's spring, enforcing against dog litter, not taking on yet more responsibilities offloaded by the GNWT, and of course, the more staff and tax increases that would mean.

Yellowknife needs a proper visitors centre, where RVers can park and tourists can get the latest lowdown on the aurora. If its going to be “Extrordinary” and “Spectacular,” the GNWT needs to step up to the plate.