SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - City councillors agree the 73-year-old Wildcat Cafe is an important part of Yellowknife's heritage, but they don't all agree on the allocation of $500,000 for renovations to the log cabin in the 2011 draft budget.

The proposed $500,000 price tag for renovations at the Wildcat Cafe in the draft 2011 budget has some councillors thinking about other uses for the site and other sources of funding. - NNSL file photo

"It's really troublesome for me to swallow," said city councillor Cory Vanthuyne at the city's line-by-line reading of the draft budget Tuesday night.

"I'm really having a problem trying to wrap my head around a project that essentially is putting $500,000 into a 450-square foot building."

Vanthuyne said he would have liked administration to bring forward a recommendation to council before the presentation of the budget, so council would have more time to discuss the allocation of such a large sum of money.

The Wildcat Cafe, which is designated by the city and the territory as a heritage site, is in need of major structural repairs. Along with a new foundation, the city's oldest restaurant needs to have water-damaged logs replaced, its joins rechinked and its exterior stained.

According to an engineering assessment completed in 2008, the foundation of the seasonal restaurant has been shifting for a number of years.

"It's come to the point where we do it or we lose it," said Coun. Mark Heyck, who is also the chair of the City Heritage Committee.

The 2011 draft budget has $115,000 carried over from last year's budget to repair the cafe's foundation and $385,000 from the 2011 budget to restructure the building.

To alleviate some of the renovation costs, Vanthuyne suggested the Heritage Committee and the Wildcat Cafe Advisory Committee initiate a fundraising campaign.

Coun. David Wind agreed with Vanthuyne and suggested the cafe be turned into a photo opportunity for tourists, rather than a summer restaurant until other funding is found.

"Why don't we designate it as the original Wildcat site, take the concession out of it and our tourists can come and have their picture taken outside the Wildcat?" he asked.

Heyck said the beauty of the cafe is that it's not only a heritage site, "it's a living, breathing, functioning building."

The building is owned by the city and leased each summer to an operator. For the past three years, that entrepreneur has been Pierre LePage, owner of Le Frolic, Chef Pierre's Catering and Rental Service and Le Stock Pot.

"The fact that we've been able to find operators to keep it as a living piece of heritage, as opposed to a building that just sits there and isn't used, is pretty significant," said Heyck. "It's not a building that sits empty where somebody goes for two minutes to get their picture taken."

He said another option being considered by the Heritage Committee is the designation of the cafe as a national historic site, which would make it eligible for a number of different funding sources.

A complicating factor for national designation is the fact that a business is operating in the building, said Heyck.

"We need to clarify what those rules are," he said.

Vanthuyne and Wind agreed that if the cafe can be closed for renovations, then it can also be closed while the city looks for other sources of funding.

The Wildcat Cafe was built by John Mainland "Smokey" Stout and Willy Wylie in 1937 and was designated a heritage site by the city in 1992.

Coun. Bob Brooks said the building is an integral part of Yellowknife's heritage.

"Basically every tourist that comes into town knows about the Wildcat before they get here and if they don't, they find out."

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