Thorunn Howatt
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sep 19/01) - Despite good luck in the construction of Yellowknife's newest retail hardware giant, the Canadian Tire store faces the same labour shortage issue as every one else in town.

Canadian Tire store owner Brad Elliott stands watch while workers hang the sign on the front of the newly constructed store that will open next month. - Thorunn Howatt/NNSL photo

"Staffing issues are the biggest problem. We are running an extremely large part-time crew," said the store's co-owner Brad Elliott.

Elliott said he is staffing the store with students as well as people who are working at Canadian Tire as a second job.

"There should be about 75 people to run the store."

Workers started moving off-season merchandise from Canadian Tire's old Franklin Avenue location last week. Staff are in the store during the evenings building and stocking shelves.

Brad and the other co-owner Heather Elliott moved to Yellowknife last April. They owned a Canadian Tire store in Mount Forest, Ont., before moving to Yellowknife. Brad also managed a store in the Yukon.

"We really enjoyed our Whitehorse experiences," so the couple decided to return to the North.

The new store is about 50 per cent larger than the Franklin Avenue location.

"The retail square footage is about 31,000," said Elliott. He said that warehouse space sent the total footage up to 60,000.

The total investment split evenly between the Elliotts and Canadian Tire is about $13 million. It includes the building, equipment, inventory and fixtures.

"Canadian Tire builds the building. I rent the building," he said.

Elliott expects the new store's opening date to be on schedule -- during the third week of October.

"Between the new baby and the new store it has been a busy summer," said Elliott. He and Heather had a new baby only six weeks ago.