Yellowknife (Sep 10/03) - Mayor Gordon Van Tighem says he was taken completely by surprise when Explorer Hotel executive Harry Symington's offered to lease his convention centre to the city for $1 a year.

Harry Symington

But in response, Symington said the mayor is feigning surprise.

"I made the offer earlier this year," said Symington.

The Explorer Hotel executive says the mayor and council are so out of touch with business concerns that he is considering a run at the mayor's seat.

Symington was part of the convention consultation process, said Van Tighem. The Explorer Hotel general manager was part of a recent detailed convention centre study and the mayor maintains Symington never made mention of the offer in the past.

Van Tighem went on to make a spirited defence of his plans to diversify the local economy and to develop Yellowknife into a destination for conventions and more of a tourist-focused centre.

"One of the communities in the South which is doing well with attracting conventions is Drumheller and what have they got to see there? Just a pile of bones. I say come to Yellowknife, there's more to see here," said Van Tighem.

While Symington insists he has made the offer to the mayor before, he clarified, that giving up the convention centre for $1 a year would include operational costs of $350,000 per annum. No long-term debt would be part of the deal.

Van Tighem commented the Explorer Hotel could only handle a conference of 50 to 80 people without having to double-use rooms.

Symington bristled

"Obviously, the mayor has his foot in his mouth. Our conference centre can handle 363 people by law.

"I can include a dance floor and food service. We hosted the Slo-Pitch Association on Saturday night and we had 350 people here," he said.

The Explorer facility breaks out into three separate rooms.

"We can subdivide into 99, 261 and even smaller groups," he said.

Symington said the building of a convention centre in Yellowknife will be a "white elephant" that taxpayers will have to pay for over the long haul.

"All you need to do is go down to the Shaw Centre in Edmonton and talk to the mayor there. He'll tell you they pay big dollars subsidizing the centre. Now, if a city like Edmonton can't run their convention centre at a profit, how can a community like Yellowknife expect to?" asked Symington.

While the mayor and the Explorer Hotel general manager are at loggerheads over the proposed convention centre, the president of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce weighed into break the log jam.

The position of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce is one of support for the building of a convention centre, said chamber president David McPherson.

While McPherson empathized with Symington over the seemingly anti-business tone emanating out of City Hall, he disagreed with the Explorer general manager's assertion the convention centre would be a white elephant.

"A feasibility study was done that said it would pay for itself," said McPherson.

But there is a bigger issue at stake than the simple construction of a convention centre, said the mayor. The bigger picture, he says, is transforming Yellowknife into a tourist destination, along the same lines as Banff and Jasper.

"The biggest thing right now is to get the community working together. For the hoteliers, the tour operators, the visitor association and the chamber as well as the Aurora Arts Society to all begin working together ... to market Yellowknife as a tourist destination." Symington concluded the potential $20 to $30 million spent on a convention centre might be better spent through hiring an American marketing company.

"We need to get out there and develop this USA market. It's just across the line and down the road. We need to contract a marketing firm in the U.S. and do what needs to be done."