Holiday weekends are strangely quiet in Yellowknife. Residents escape the city by heading up the Ingraham Trail or out on the water, leaving the streets to tourists.

All weekend, out-of-town visitors could be seen wandering from closed storefront to closed storefront, their vacation dollars burning holes in the pockets of their Tilley walking shorts.

The summer months are the peak of the Yellowknife tourist season. It is prime time for out-of-town visitors.

Sadly, the merchants of Yellowknife don't get the hint.

As this city attempts to diversify its economic base by encouraging tourism, the retailers and service industries don't seem to respond the needs of tourists.

With the exception of some of Yellowknife's finer restaurants and the Prince of Wales Heritage Centre, this town was closed tight on Sunday and Monday.

All the stores were closed, the Centre Square Mall was shut for the holiday and kayak and canoe renters took the day off.

The Chamber of Commerce might consider organizing a junket to some towns of a similar size to see the energy and committment that they have put in to build a tourist industry. Juneau, Alaska comes to mind.

Many towns with tourism-based economies postpone their civic mid-summer holiday until the off-season so that merchants can take maximum advantage of visitors' spending money.

If Yellowknife is serious about building tourism, people in the service sector will have to get serious.

There is plenty of competition for visitors and Yellowknife will lose out if people aren't prepared to work for vacationers' attention.

The sad part is that Yellowknife has a head start on many other places. There is the romance of the North, long days, good fishing, astounding scenery, living history and the goodwill of Yellowknifers. To not take of advantage of this is to squander the opportunity to build the sort of economic diversity this town needs. The choice is ours.

The 10th anniversary of Aven Manor, home to 137 Northerners since it opened, is a welcome sign that Yellowknife, along with many of its citizens, is maturing.

It wasn't so long ago that only those whose family trees were firmly rooted in the North, specifically Dene and Metis elders, would choose to spend their retirement years in the city. But more and more of those who were born in the South have decided that they'll put up with the winter because, after all, this is home.

No community is whole without its elders, and we can all take pride in their decision to stick around.

Fourteen people living along School Draw Avenue who signed a petition against having a third group home in their neighborhood have every right to complain.

However, the complaint is unfounded.

We have yet to hear a single convincing argument for not allowing the temporary respite care facility for children in need to go ahead. And the argument that having a young offenders' group home and a psychiatric home on the same street means offenders and victims will be living together just doesn't wash.

At the end of the day, we believe the third home will change nothing about the "nature of the residential area." It does have to go somewhere, and no matter what location, there will always be one or more people raising their voices in protest.