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Leading seaman John Morin dishes out lunch during the Canadian Forces' stay in Yellowknife for Exercise Arctic Ram. Hosting the 1,500 army personnel proved to be a boost to the city's economy. - NNSL file photo

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Canadian Forces' Exercise Arctic Ram brought major dollars into the city over the past month, with more than $2.5 million dollars spent in Yellowknife by the military, in addition to extra spending by hundreds of troops seen about town.

Some 1,500 military personnel participated in the exercises, testing and improving the forces' ability to operate in the North, and as they make their way back home, the city's merchants are counting extra dollars in their tills.

"Every time I looked out there, there was a couple of guys in uniform, milling around," said Lisa Seagrave, owner of the Gallery of the Midnight Sun.

Seagrave estimated in the past week about 20 or 30 soldiers visited each day.

"I think they're all looking for things to take home for their families now, so we've seen quite a number of them coming through," she said.

There has definitely been a bump in sales at the gallery, she said, with a noticeable 15 to 20 per cent increase in revenue.

The troops began arriving in the city as early as Jan. 23, and by March 10, 99 per cent of the 1,500 troops, mostly from Edmonton, will have returned to their home bases, said public affairs officer Maj. Lena Angell.

Of its $17.5-million dollar working budget, the military spent about $2.6 million in Yellowknife for Exercise Arctic Ram, including a $280,000 fresh produce contract with Yellowknife-based food distributor Northern Foodservices, $130,000 on charters and rented aircraft from Summit Air, Air Tindi, and Buffalo Air, and $2 million in gas and diesel spending for a total of 1.5 million litres of gas and diesel bought in Yellowknife.

The majority of the military's spending went to standing contracts in Edmonton, including food services, with the milk, yogurt, fresh produce, bread and other date-sensitive products provided by Northern Foodservices, amounting to about one-third of the total food spending.

"If they were aware that we were up here and capable of doing it, we hopefully would have got 100 per cent of (the food contract)," said Northern Foodservices operations manager Pietro Bertolini. "It would be nice to have a lot more business from them."

The Canadian Forces wanted to be as self-sufficient as possible for the exercise, Angell said.

"We want to be able to go into a location and be as self-sufficient as we can, so if we could do this whole exercise without actually having to purchase food from the economy we would have preferred to do it that way," she said.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem said the exercise had a positive impact on the city's economy.

"They invested wherever it was possible without impacting what we're doing here," Van Tighem said. "Their exercise was a success and they'll be back, so good stuff. You get 1,500 people through here over a period of a month - it's pretty big."

Angell said there were no scheduled times off for the troops during the exercise, but uniform-clad officers were spotted all over the city.

"I saw it at Tim Hortons myself," said Tim Doyle, Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce executive director. "We're seeing whole groups of them going at six, seven, eight people at a time in their camouflage or their big white boots. The merchants were generally talking about them and it was considered positive all around," he said. "With what they brought to this community, we would gladly open our arms and have them up here every year or encourage the DND to expand the Canadian Forces personnel in this area."

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