Northern Frontier Visitors Centre gets interim fix, could be used again

The Northwest Territories government is hoping to salvage the damaged Northern Frontier Visitors Centre building in Yellowknife and is looking into whether anyone is interested in using the space.

The Department of Infrastructure took over the building last year after structural problems caused by permafrost forced its closure.

The Northern Frontier Visitors Association used to run the visitors centre, but disbanded after the building was shuttered.

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This spring, the department spent $125,000 to stabilize the building's pilings, support beams and pillars, fence off the surrounding area and make the building safe to use.

"Now we're in the next phase, which is determining if there is a user out there that needs the building," said Kevin McLeod, assistant deputy minister with the Department of Infrastructure.

He added the building is "iconic" in Yellowknife.

"We want to make maximum use of what's already been invested in the building and, before we demolish it or take any major steps, we want to make sure that we're doing the right thing," he said.

N.W.T. government evaluating all options

The visitors centre, which was built partly on pilings over water in the early 1990s, had been shifting and sinking for years even before it closed down last year. The former visitors association had looked into ways to fix it, but doing so would have been too expensive.

As for what would keep the building from facing the same structural problems in the future, McLeod said the territorial government has "the capacity to do the tests and do the reviews and hire the proper people to come up with some viable options."

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That includes weighing the costs of keeping the current building, demolishing part of it, or redoing the pilings to ensure they don't need long-term maintenance.

However, McLeod said the building is viable, despite the fact it would need renovations to things like windows if it's used.

"We need to save what we can save, because some folks have put quite a bit of investment into it already," he said.

City to run visitor services until late September

According to McLeod, the territorial government has already talked with its departments, the City of Yellowknife, and other groups who might be interested in using the visitors centre building.

However, one city officialsays it has no plansto move in right now.

Instead, the city is waiting for contractors to finish a visitor services strategy, which is expected to outline the best model for offering visitor services in Yellowknife.

"We're not experts in visitor services," said Kerry Penney, director of policy, communications and economic development at the city.

"We want to play a part, but we're looking forward to our strategy to give us some direction on what's the best place for visitor services and how it should be provided."

She stressed that the city's plan was always to offer visitor services in the interim. City council passed a motion in late March to continue offering visitor services out of city hall until Sept. 30.

"Right now we don't know what the vision for visitor services into the future is," Penney said.

Building in a 'prime spot'

Kyle Thomas, a Yellowknife tourism advocate and former president of the visitors association, said he's not surprised the territorial government has stabilized the building.

"It's still a prime spot," he said, adding the former visitors association knew a fix to the building was possible, but it couldn't afford to take on that burden.

He said there could still be an array of possibilities for the building, like aspace for artists, or some kind of space both visitors and residents can enjoy.

"I think it would be interesting and excellent, albeit ironic and probably a slap in the face a bit to the organization, if it actually, you know, went back to being some sort of public space, be it visitor information or some other non-profit running it," said Thomas.

"It is a great space for probably many things."