Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 19/05) - It's the Greenstone Building.

The new federal building was officially opened Friday during a naming ceremony.

More than 200 suggestions for names were submitted. The final decision was made by the naming committee in a democratic process.

David Tilden, a hazardous materials specialist with Environment Canada, submitted the winning name.

"Rocks are what Yellowknife is all about," Tilden said.

Greenstone was chosen because it speaks about the foundation of the city, its past and its present, said Bishop John Sperry, a member of the naming committee.

"We all felt it represented Northern life," Sperry said.

The committee decided not to name the building after a Northerner because they couldn't suggest one person was more important than another, said Sperry.

Yellowknife is situated on top of a 2.7 billion-year-old greenstone belt, part of the Canadian Shield. The belt is the source of the region's gold and other valuable minerals.

The opening ceremony for the Greenstone building started with a song and drumming by Roberta Kennedy of the Haida nation and a blessing by Michel Taper, a Dettah elder of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation.

Speeches focused on the importance of the building to Yellowknife and its environmental features.

"This building is going to be a wonderful addition to our downtown," said Wendy Bisaro, the city's deputy mayor, to the crowd of about 100.

Three boardrooms in the building will be made available for community groups outside of normal office hours.

The Greenstone building will help cement the relationship between the territorial and federal governments, said Premier Joe Handley.

"When I'm in this building I could be in Ottawa," said Handley.

About 200 public service employees from approximately 15 different departments and agencies including Service Canada, Parks Canada and Citizenship and Immigration Canada will call the Greenstone building home.

The building, which was completed on budget for $28 million, will save taxpayers an estimated $70,000 per year in energy costs, said Ethel Blondin-Andrew, Western Arctic MP.

The savings come from the building's environmentally friendly design.

The photovoltaic curtain wall on the south side of the building can create 33.5 kilowatts and provide five per cent of the building's electricity needs. It's the second largest photovoltaic array in Canada, said Greg Clarahan the president of Visionwall, the company that built the wall.

Vegetation will grow on the roof during the summer, helping insulate the building year round and gather rainwater that will be used in the plumbing system. Occupied workspaces receive natural light 90 per cent of the time they are in use. It is also one of the few office buildings where the windows can be opened.

"The light is beautiful," said Darlene Brown in the Service Canada office who gets the full benefit of the curtain wall from her location.

Minor touches are being finished inside the building as departments move in. There are 55 people from Service Canada, Correctional Services, Public Works and Government Services and the NWT Federal Council in the building. The remaining departments are moving in daily and should all be settled in by mid-November.

The landscaping and pavement in the parking lot will be finished in the spring, said Bob Milburn, the project manager from Public Works.