Welcome to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada
Your Yellowknife
area contact is Jim & Joyce Williams (REMAX Ridge-Meadows Realty.) Please refer to the "Relocating to Yellowknife" section to the right for
the phone number, address, website, and email address to contact Jim & Joyce Williams directly.
Ask about the REMAX MLS homes for sale including residential houses, apartments, condos, duplexes, acreages and farms.
Yellowknife summary
Yellowknife (2006 population 18,700) is the capital of Canada's Northwest Territories. It is located on the north shore of Great Slave Lake, approximately 400 km.
(250 miles) south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the outlet of the Yellowknife River. Yellowknife and its surrounding water bodies were
named after the local Yellowknives Dene First Nation, who made tools from regional copper deposits. The current population is ethnically mixed. Of the eleven official
languages of the Northwest Territories, five are spoken in significant numbers in Yellowknife: Dene Suline, Dogrib, South and North Slavey, English, and French. In the
Dogrib language, the city is known as Somba K'e ("where the money is").
Yellowknife was first settled in 1935, after gold had been found in the area; Yellowknife soon become the centre of economic activity in the NWT, and became the capital
of the Northwest Territories in 1967. As gold production began to wane, Yellowknife shifted from being a mining town to being a centre of government services in the 1980s.
However, with the recent discovery of diamonds north of Yellowknife, this shift has begun to reverse.
Yellowknife's economy is rooted around the fact that it is the territorial centre for mining, industry, transportation, communications, education, health, tourism,
commerce and government. Historically, Yellowknife's economic growth was centred around gold mining and government. However, due to the split of the Northwest Territories
in 1999, and falling gold prices, the government workforce was downsized, and the final gold mine closed in 2004.
In recent years, Yellowknife's economy has recovered, largely because of the diamond boom. The Ekati Diamond Mine opened in 1998. A second mine, Diavik Diamond Mine, began
production in 2003. Production from the two operating mines in 2004 was 12,618,000 carats (2,523kg) valued at over C$2.1 billion. This ranked Canada third in world diamond
production by value, and sixth by weight. A third mine, De Beers' Snap Lake Diamond Mine Project, received final approval and funding in 2005, with plans for production in
2007. De Beers also applied in 2005 for a permit to open the Gahcho Kue Diamond Mine Project on the property formerly known as Kennedy Lake. Upon receipt of approval,
construction is expected to start in 2010 and the mine will reach full production by 2012. As well, growth and expansion in natural gas development and exploration sectors
has contributed to this growth. Economic growth in the Northwest Territories was 10.6% in 2003.
The major employers in Yellowknife include: the Government of the Northwest Territories, the Government of Canada, Diavik Diamond Mines Incorporated, BHP Billiton, First
Air, NorthwesTel, RTL Robinson Trucking, and the City of Yellowknife. Government employment accounts for 7,644 jobs, a large percentage of those in Yellowknife.
Tourism is the largest sector of renewable-based industries in the NWT, and the majority of visitors to the territory touch down in Yellowknife. Many of these tourists are
Japanese, and come to experience the Northern climate and traditional lifestyle, as well as to see the Northern Lights. In 2004-05, visitors to the territory spent C$100.5
million.
The City of Yellowknife raises 50% of its operating revenue through property taxation. Yellowknife School Districts also raise a portion of their operating revenue through
property taxation. Property taxes in Yellowknife are calculated through property assessment and the municipal and education mill rates. Mill rates in 2005 were 13.84
(residential) and 19.87 (commercial).
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