As gold slumps below the $300 mark, Yellowknifers would do well to take a long-term view of the town's future. This city has been striving for years to shed its "boom or bust" and the figures show our progress is much better than people may know.

In 1951, 56 per cent of the city's workforce was in the mining industry, 15 per cent worked in the mines in 1981, down to the present estimate of just nine per cent.

While Con and Giant are No. 1 and third-largest ratepayers respectively, the city would survive if the worst happened.

Yes, the rental sector is feeling the pinch of a high vacancy rate and even higher tenant turnover. But their problems must been seen in light of decades-long trend of tight vacancy and ever-increasing rents.

The same goes for the real estate market, which in the late 1980s and early '90s was outperformed only by Toronto and Vancouver.

The stress on homeowners and landlords watching their property values decline is balanced by the good fortune of those ready to buy.

The good news is BHP construction is ahead of schedule and Canada's first diamond mine should be in production this time next year. Diavik's mine is set to start up at the end of 2000 or the beginning of 2001.

As for the threat of territorial division, the pain may not prove as bad as some predict. Several cross-territorial agencies will remain and Nunavut's architects are counting on contracting out some of the services, presumably to the GNWT, at least for the first few years.

Pessimism is unwarranted, and will get us nowhere.

Ever since BHP Diamonds received approval to build Canada's only diamond mine, Yellowknifers have been urging governments to do what they can to force the company to sort its gems here, rather than in Europe.

But as this year's GeoScience Forum heard last week, there really is no stick with which to threaten BHP. As some have been arguing for months, it's beyond our power.

That it is. But if we don't have a stick, perhaps we could find a carrot, some sort of incentive for BHP to participate more closely in the Yellowknife economy, whether sorting diamonds or housing employees. All we are saying is give peace a chance.