Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Great cities aren't built in one day.

They start with a foundation and through a solid framework and flexible vision, a community and its people will see success as the city becomes a more cohesive and complete structure.

However, success does not come without challenge. The future of a city is dependent on long-term planning. Without looking ahead to the future and addressing possible scenarios, a city's life is only as long as its short-term goals.

For the city of Yellowknife, a young community in the grand scheme of it all, long-term planning is crucial to its survival. Without looking ahead, Yellowknife could become a thing of the past. That's why the city has partnered with Vancouver-based strategic planning firm Envision Sustainability Tools to help make Yellowknife's future 50 years from now a vision with more clarity.

Jeffrey Humble, director of planning and lands for the city, said the application of good planning principals will result in good urban form and improve on the overall quality of life in the city but there will be sacrifices in order to achieve this.

"There will be all kinds of trade-offs that will have to be made as a city in order to determine the direction we go," he said.

"Economic and tax trade-offs, traffic congestion, these are all things that will weigh in on the decisions we make."

One trade-off in particular Humble talked about was between green space and development in outlying areas. He said it's inevitable that certain areas like Tin Can Hill and Jackfish Lake will be looked at but the citizen's concerns about these areas is important in creating a balance.

"We're going to have to target other areas for development in the future," he said.

"When we look at these trade-offs between intensification of the downtown or developing in a smart way, we need to make trade-offs the public is going to accept between how much green space we can preserve and where those pockets of development take place."

City councillor David McCann agrees that trade-offs and balance are key components of the success of a growth strategy.

"That's what this exercise is all about, trying to ascertain what priorities are in the minds of our citizens," he said.

"Everything comes at a price and it's a matter of picking what you think is best for you and ante up when you have to."

When one looks at the history of the North, specifically Yellowknife, it is deeply rooted in mining and natural resource extraction. McCann is concerned that without economic diversification Yellowknife could face a difficult road. He said the service and tourism industries could be a key component to securing a strong future.

"When we're making money and life is fun there is a tendency to, at times not want anything else," he said.

"It's an illusion of a sense of security. We need to bulletproof our existence to make sure we survive into the future. We need to be able to adapt into the future and offer a level of sophistication and comfort with a unique character. People want to be comparable to other major centers across the country."

McCann gave an example of a tourism attraction in Moose Jaw, Man., where they do tours of basements where Al Capone was supposed to have made moonshine during prohibition in the early part of the 20th Century. He said this interactive and personal approach to tourism is something Yellowknife could benefit from and draw people to the uniqueness of the region.

"Explaining your past, especially when you have something unique to tell, it's very exciting for outsiders," he said.

"That's what makes a place unique, how you explain how people were here, what they did and how they survived. Presenting it in a very personal way, not just charts and pictures on the wall is a much better way."

Competitiveness is the word McCann uses to sum up locking down a solid future for the city. He said when the gold mines began shutting down in the 1990s it brought a steep pessimism into the community and this is something easily avoidable with a practical vision.

"The reality is that resources are limited and human wants are unlimited," he said. "The whole art and science is how do we bring these two things together to a balance."

McCann said priorities need to be set but this is a tough thing to do.

Coun. Shelagh Montgomery, chair of the city's Smart Growth Redevelopment Plan, also agrees the city needs to look at diversifying and it's better to do it now than have to deal with it later.

"By entering into the exercise it's a positive step and you're making people think more long-term than they usually do."

Both Montgomery and McCann said transportation is a key issue that will help shape a stronger Yellowknife. McCann said a nodal transit system would be extremely beneficial to a city they expect will grow to approximately 50,000 people by 2058. The nodal system is based on a major node which McCann said is the downtown core connected with smaller nodes which would be the surrounding areas of the city.

"These nodes would be connected by high-speed transit, like a segregated bus system," he said.

"It would help to cut back on single-vehicle occupancy if we had a more structured transportation system."

Montgomery added alternative forms of transportation that are innovative will improve the overall quality of the people and community as a whole.

She also said the energy efficient building standards the city is working on will help improve the efficiency of energy consumption and central district heating is something she hopes will be considered. Montgomery attended a conference put on by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and found city planners and developers were saying single family homes are dead.

She said low-density development is something that divides the council currently.

"I'm hoping this public participation will direct us towards more high density development," she said.

"This low density development is very energy consumptive, very expensive and raises the cost of living. Central district heating would help lower the cost of living."

The Smart Growth redevelopment plan is something that will grow and change over time and the Metroquest workshops are only a small part of the overall future planning for Yellowknife.

"You don't create a 50-year plan and say this is what we're going to do and not change it," Montgomery said. "It's a living document that needs to be adjusted over time."

McCann said once a plan is published it begins to lose its currency. Circumstances begin to change that weren't factored into the original plan.

"Conditions are changing and pressures will be brought to change the plan so new information will always be bringing change to the plan," he said. "We need to keep it fresh.

"I think we're a unique part of Canada and with the right kind of encouragement, everyone can do much better."

Through four public workshops, two next week and two in October, citizens will be able to give their input into a continually growing vision of the future of Yellowknife through a program called Metroquest.

Developed over a ten-year period at the University of British Columbia by professionals from more than 70 cross-disciplines, Metroquest helps explain the complexities of regional planning to citizen while providing feedback to officials and planners on creating a sustainable future for their city.

Matthew McClough, vice-president of business development for Metroquest, said the program allows people with limited understanding of city planning and development to offer a meaningful contribution to something they might not fully understand.

"What the program does is show the impact of policy change in real-time," McClough said. "It's a unique and powerful tool because communities are able to communicate to planners and elected officials on the kind of vision they want to create."

The program allows for regular citizens to engage in the process instead of being told about the process, something McClough said creates an exciting and stimulating learning environment for citizens and allows citizens to understand the integrated impact of choices for future planning.

"Instead of talking about it we give people keypads to give their input," he said. "A lot of people at these things are interested but don't have the courage to speak up. It gives the voter on policy anonymity.

"It's a true account of the thoughts of people in the room."

Public input is one of the main reasons municipalities come to them for assistance in strategic planning, McClough said. Public input on issues like green space preservation, urban sprawl, traffic congestion, livability, affordability, taxes and climate change, something McClough said is a genuine interest for communities today, is crucial to a city's future development.

"The kind of clients that come to us are looking to create a long-term sustainable vision for their city and are genuinely concerned about stakeholder engagement and community census and support for good plans," he said.

Montgomery said these sessions will allow council to gain a perspective on what citizens want for the future of Yellowknife.

"The smart plan is a more holistic approach to city planning," she said. "It takes into account energy consumption, transportation, community well-being and other factors important to city planning. Metroquest is a tool that will give people a chance to play with different scenarios and better understand how possible changes will react with one another."

McClough said the program will give planners the confidence to go ahead with development.

"It allows a city and its planners to gel together and agree on what policies are going to frame the region's future," he said.

"It gives the citizens a sense of ownership on the plan going forward and the politicians the sense of courage they are representing the people in a clear fashion."