Yellowknife’s Radio-Canada signal will switch next week

Yellowknife will switch from the Montreal Radio-Canada signal to the Edmonton equivalent next week after a majority of francophone residents backed the change.

The Association franco-culturelle de Yellowknife says Ici Radio-Canada Première’s Montreal signal has been offered in the city since 1991, after a group of residents set up a transmission known as a repeater.

But after a series of community consultations this summer, “about 70 percent” of residents surveyed chose Edmonton’s service instead, AFCY executive director Maxime Joly said in a news release.

The change will take place on November 28.

“After over 30 years, it was about time to consider our options,” stated Joly.

“This is an important change for our community. We are hopeful that this evolution will meet our community’s needs and that we will benefit from a better representation.”

AFCY’s president, Etienne Croteau, stated in the same news release: “Without the efforts of Yellowknife francophones at the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s, there might not even be a French Radio-Canada in Yellowknife.

“We are grateful for their mobilization, and we are pleased with the coming change.”