SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Tapering mining and exploration activity in the region had members of the city's business community pitching alternative ways of developing the territory's economy at a recent public forum.
Former premier Joseph Handley, centre, chair of the NWT Economic Opportunities Strategy advisory panel, and Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce president Jason McEvoy, right, chatted with participants following a business club luncheon and engagement session on Feb. 20 at the Yellowknife Inn. - Thandiwe Vela/NNSL photo
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The event, hosted by the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce and the NWT economic opportunities advisory panel, was held on Feb. 20 at the Yellowknife Inn.
Tasked by the 17th legislative assembly to develop a strategy that will allow the NWT economy to move forward, the panel, which includes former mayor Gord Van Tighem and is chaired by former premier Joseph Handley, wrapped up about 80 meetings across the regional centres last month, during which panelists heard about economic opportunities to be pursued in the NWT and barriers preventing them from happening.
"What's healthy for Yellowknife is healthy for the communities," Handley told the room he was told by community residents during the tour.
Regulatory uncertainty was a hot topic at the forum, as participants discussed how devolution could be a turning point in the territory's dwindling grassroots exploration activity.
"I think we're at a fork in the road," said Mike Bradshaw, executive director of the NWT Chamber of Commerce. "Everybody's feeling a sense of momentum or mystery about what devolution is really going to mean, and how it's going to help us to reform the regulatory regime and make that a little more streamlined."
Bradshaw said he likes the notion of government departments being more integrated and sharing better communication, because this could benefit not only the resource industry, but small business development.
"I talked to some small business owners and sole proprietorships in the past couple weeks who told me the nightmare they had to go through to get their licences and how one hand didn't know what the other hand was doing," he said.
Lack of population growth was also identified as a major challenge at the forum, leading to high electricity costs as the dwindling population base is forced to cover the costs of capital infrastructure.
"We have fewer power customers in the North so the truth is the more we reduce our consumption of power up here the more power rates will go up because the overhead is just so high," said Yellowknife consultant David Connely. "It's an unwinable battle."
Ideas suggested to combat rising energy costs included uniting the power grid with a neighbouring jurisdiction to bring the rates and overhead down, and pursuing sustainable energy projects such as geothermal, a liquified natural gas plant, and biomass.
Ideas to boost the population included better quality housing and eliminating the income tax for NWT residents. Tax incentives to get people to stay in the North have been discussed, Handley said.
"I'm a firm believer we've got to get our population up. It's too hard to manage 33 communities of 41,000 people. It's an expensive way of doing business," he said.
A larger college would keep young residents in the North for schooling, the panel heard, and more initiatives should be put in place to keep the talent here and diversify the economy.
"I'm getting a sense that a lot of the industry in the North is very resource-driven -- what can we get from here, who can we sell it to, what kind of energy can we make? It is pulling from a finite pool of resources," said Vincent Luddington of Cold Mountain Computing, who suggested manufacturing and software development as possible drivers of the economy.
"Making games, apps, websites, I think a market like that could really thrive in the North because you don't need a centralized location. Delivery to your customers is basically instantaneous over the Internet," he said.
"The people I know that have been trained to go into technology development and graphic design, a lot of them are from here, get trained in the south, move back to pay off their loan, then sort of just migrate to where the opportunities are," he said.
The tourism and convention business is an area that could drive a lot of business into town, suggested Mike Olsen of First Air.
"The convention business is huge. So that to me would be one of the recommendations to work on. Not a convention centre in itself, but get that bureau going, get that business coming to the NWT," he said.
The economic opportunities strategy will include input gathered during the forums across the NWT, a recommended set of strategies to address regional strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats; a prioritized list of economic opportunities; and recommended actions to realize these opportunities, according to spokesperson Drew Williams.
"Our intention is that once the strategy is completed, it can be used as a guide -- over the next decade -- to support the growth and development of the NWT's businesses, industries and the economy overall," Williams said.
Former premier Floyd Roland took a similar approach, gathering input from across the territory in 2010, with the Creating our Future Together vision. While the vision contained economic elements, the current advisory panel's work will go toward the first NWT economic development strategy in more than 12 years, since Common Ground was struck in 2000.
