Is Yellowknife’s Centre Square Mall entering a new era?

Anh Thu Bui says she and her staff face harassment from Centre Square Mall visitors every day.

The owner of From Scratch Bakeshop & Boba, located in the upper section of the mall, says sentiments such as “go back to your country” and “you’re stealing our jobs” are regularly aimed at the store’s staff.

She said she has also walked into the mall to find blood on the floor of the entranceway.

Sometimes, people have tried to steal the bakery’s tip cups. Occasionally, they threaten violence.

Bui is one of several store owners in the Yellowknife mall who say they routinely face harassment, theft and violence. 

Centre Square Mall is in the heart of downtown Yellowknife. There are two sections – an upper and lower mall, separated by a barrier that you can see through but not cross – each owned by a separate company. Both firms are headquartered elsewhere.

For decades, news reports have documented a mall in declining health. Vacant units became the dominant feature of both mall levels. Reports of violence and threats are not new.

As a result, security guards patrol the mall and usher out members of the public that linger too long.

Yet the mall is one of the last remaining places where some of the city’s most vulnerable can warm up, use a restroom and socialize during the coldest months of the year.

Spaces such as an A&W restaurant that used to be located in the upper mall provided a spot for people to sit, use the wifi and catch up with one another. 

That restaurant closed at the end of last year, which could be interpreted as a sign of the mall’s ongoing decay.

But there’s another way to look at things.

In recent weeks, there has been a flurry of activity in the mall with new businesses opening up.

The Sizzling Filipino Restaurant has already replaced A&W in the space it vacated. The Auroville Cultural Mart and Ricky’s All Day Grill opened weeks apart. More new stores appear to be on the way.

Will an influx of foot traffic improve the situation inside Centre Square Mall, or will existing and underlying issues persist?

‘Closest, warmest spot’

In Yellowknife, there aren’t many places to go during the day if you have no home.

“That’s the very sad thing here,” said Tony Brushett, executive director of the city’s Salvation Army branch, which runs a men’s emergency shelter. “There’s not a lot of support from seven in the morning until seven in the evening.”

The Salvation Army shelter sends its overnight residents away at 7am each day. There are other places to go, but they’re limited in what they offer and their capacity.

The NWT government operates a day shelter in modular buildings a couple of blocks away from the mall. A new wellness and recovery centre is expected to open a block away in the other direction in late 2026, offering 59 seats during the day – 14 more than the modular buildings.

“When we send them out of here at seven o’clock in the morning … they just saunter very slowly up the road, almost like they don’t know where they’re going,” said Brushett of people using the men’s shelter overnight.

“They’re just going for probably the next closest, warmest spot they can find.”

Often, that’s Centre Square Mall.

A person experiencing homelessness – who preferred not to have her name published – spoke with Cabin Radio in Centre Square Mall while she waited for a taxi.

She said she had a disability and wanted to sit down to share her thoughts. But with little to no public infrastructure in the mall, she had no option but to sit on the floor.

The shelter user said that after she and others have breakfast and complete their chores at the Yellowknife Women’s Centre, they are usually asked to leave by about 9am. When it’s cold out, she said, they can usually return around noon.

She said shelter operators suggest they use the intervening time to be “productive.”

The shelter user said she sometimes uses the time to find alcohol. (According to a study published in 2021 by Employment and Social Development Canada, addictions and substance use are the most commonly cited reasons for housing loss.)

Other times, she visits the public library in the lower mall to read books or rent movies.

“I love to read,” she said as she shared the plot of the last novel she read.

She said she has been living at the women’s centre on and off for the past two years, having been evicted from her apartment.

“They’re very good people, very good crew – very caring,” she said of the staff at the women’s centre.

She said the centre was helping to make arrangements for her to go back to her home community within the NWT, so she can stay with family.

“I want to go back to my hometown. I want to make dry fish. I want to do everything like I used to do,” she said.

In a written statement, Yellowknife Women’s Society deputy director Jessica Mitchell said the organization’s supportive housing program tries to prevent the entry of intoxicated people into the centre before 5pm daily, “ensuring less disruptions for those working towards growth, recovery, and participating in offered programming.”

“However, this is difficult to impose, especially in cold winter months, as they are not allowed entry to the Day Shelter or the Sobering Centre, leaving them with no other options,” Mitchell wrote.

‘Not the only place to have aurora’

One Centre Square Mall store owner, who requested not to be named for fear of repercussions, said he first opened his shop in the late 1990s. 

Ten years ago, he said, he would never have to worry about keeping an eye on people in the store as they shopped. Now, he is vigilant about looking out for shoplifters, describing a situation getting progressively worse since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Every time Cabin Radio visited the store, he had a new story about someone stealing merchandise.

“If they cannot take, they will damage your stuff,” he said.

During one incident in which he pursued someone who stole from the store, he said the shoplifter had shoved his head against a wall.

He recalled that when RCMP showed up, officers said he could press charges. He worried about the time that could take and felt unsure what the legal process would look like – or what the associated expenses might be.

The store owner had security footage of the theft but said RCMP wouldn’t take it unless he decided to press charges.

He expressed hopelessness over the situation because he feels like there’s nothing he can do to prevent theft, and – to him – nothing worthwhile he can do after the crimes have been committed.

If a solution isn’t found, he believes “the mall will die again.”

He said he tries to keep prices low so customers will continue to visit, but he’s not sure how long he can keep this up.

“We’re very old now,” he said, adding he will try to keep the store open for the next few years.

One other Centre Square Mall store owner, who also asked not to be named, agreed that violence in the mall seems to get worse in winter when people might use the space to warm up.

The second shop owner said he used to keep his store’s door open but, because he sometimes has a child in tow, he now leaves the door closed.

He said he often witnesses fights in the mall’s entranceways.

“We don’t want my son to hear that or see that,” he said.

He questioned why some services for people experiencing homelessness are located downtown, where tourists stay and walk around. He added he often sees people asking tourists for money.

“You know, I think if I’m the tourist and I saw that, I will go back to my country and tell my friend: ‘go somewhere else,'” said the shop owner.

“Yellowknife is not the only place to have aurora, I tell you that. Whitehorse or even Europe, they have aurora, so why come to this scary place?”

The missing piece

During a walk through the mall, Cabin Radio spoke with someone – she preferred not to give her name – who visits the mall weekly to check in on friends.

She cooks foods like bannock, fish and caribou, and distributes it to people who might be hungry.

“They love it, especially when I cook the traditional food,” she said.

“It’s not easy to be on the street. I’ve been there,” she said, adding she was homeless for about two years before finding her current accommodation.

She, too, would pass through the mall to warm up on colder days.

She said the city needs more spaces that can accommodate people.

“A&W, they shut down. They have nowhere to go,” she said.

“They need more places for them, to help them. Instead of being on the street or being at the trailer or drop-in or Salvation Army, they should do something for them.

“It’s not easy to get out of the street.”

The mall has a Tim Hortons – one without seating – and there are three or four coffee shops within a few blocks’ radius. There’s also the public library, which is accessed through an elevator or stairs at the bottom end of the mall. 

Spaces like coffee shops or the library are what sociologist Ray Oldenburg calls third places – with home being the first place and work being the second.

Throughout his career, Oldenburg has argued third places have the potential to foster relationships, improve community unity, grow social capital and even strengthen democracy.

Library visitor Candice Lys said she and her children, aged four and six, like to use the library in the mall to play, read and get a change of scenery.

“The library space is really welcoming,” said Lys. “It’s a nice change of pace from our house, especially in the winter.”

On any given day, plenty of people can be seen making use of the space, from students studying to people reading or using the free wifi.

A common sentiment among store owners, including bakeshop owner Bui, is they wouldn’t mind if people used the broader mall that way – relax, browse the internet, warm up – so long as they weren’t being disruptive or violent.

Bui said she has called RCMP before when faced with verbal harassment, but was told they wouldn’t send an officer unless there was a physical threat.

After this article was first published, she said she had later visited the Yellowknife RCMP detachment and spoken with an officer who said while verbal insults and inappropriate language aren’t considered harassment, police would still attend to remove someone trying to bother her, staff or customers.

Roy, a security guard who works in the upper mall, said increased RCMP patrols could help.

“I’m not gonna say station them here, but at least every couple hours you come by just to see that things are going alright – that would help reinforce our job,” said Roy, who preferred only to have his first name published. He said that’s how mall-goers know him.

Sometimes, he said, people try to “get physical” with him and he has to remind himself that he can’t fight back. Instead, he calls the police.

The same store owner who earlier described the change since he set up in the late 1990s said RCMP can’t reasonably respond in time for crimes like shoplifting, where perpetrators usually act swiftly.

“About one minute is late already, not 15,” he said.

Salvation Army executive director Brushett said a 24/7 shelter might provide a safe place for people during the day where they could access services.

Before coming to Yellowknife two years ago, Brushett ran such a shelter in Ottawa.

He said people there could spend the night and, in the morning, they would be asked to leave the bedroom areas so cleaners could access the space. When that happened, there were common areas available for people to use.

“You could sit and watch TV or play games, but we also strategically would place housing workers, mental health workers, addictions counsellors – they’re in the offices around that area – so you get a chance to chat with people throughout the day,” said Brushett.

“That’s the missing piece here.”

Brushett hopes the new wellness centre will offer that when it opens. “But I suspect it won’t,” he added.

“I think it’s just going to replace the current day shelter and sobering centre.”

Mitchell, at the Yellowknife Women’s Society, agreed that a single round-the-clock facility with wraparound services “would greatly lower negative interactions between unhoused individuals and the Centre Square Mall’s occupants.”

Brushett said this is something he has previously discussed with the GNWT. He knows it would require significant investment.

“We’re not talking about a small amount of money here, we’re into tens of millions of dollars to build a purpose-built shelter,” said Brushett.

“But it certainly does not look like, in my lifetime, we’re going to see a decrease in the number of homeless here in Yellowknife.”

‘So far, so good’

On its opening day in the upper Centre Square Mall earlier this month, Ricky’s All Day Grill was bustling with people enjoying French toast, waffles and eggs.

Yellowknife’s mayor, Rebecca Alty – who, since commenting for this article, has stepped away from the role while running to be the territory’s MP – says new developments like Ricky’s show the mall can still be turned around.

“The Centre Square Mall holds a central location in the heart of downtown, and the addition of new businesses is an exciting opportunity for revitalization,” Alty wrote in a statement to Cabin Radio prior to announcing her federal candidacy.

“We anticipate that these new ventures will help attract more traffic to the area, which will benefit both the mall and the downtown as a whole.”

She added the city is working to expand the Street Outreach program, which she said could include a daily foot patrol downtown, though details of the expansion were not immediately available. Street Outreach offers help to get vulnerable people to a safe place when they need it.

One owner of the new Sizzling Filipino Restaurant, Evalyn Santos, said she didn’t expect the restaurant to be so busy right off the bat.

“The whole day until 8pm is full blast and we [are] sold out every day,” said Santos this month.

She said she chose to open inside the former A&W storefront because of its prime downtown location in front of a bus stop, near office buildings and a school.

So far, she said, there have been a few incidents of people who appeared to be intoxicated and had to be asked to leave. Santos said she asked the mall’s security guard for assistance and they helped usher people out.

Otherwise, she concluded, things have been pretty good in the space.

Bakery owner Bui said she’s noticed an increase of foot traffic through the mall since the new businesses opened, though she said she might wait three to six months to see if that new interest is sustained.

While she was initially concerned that more people in the mall could lead to more violence and harassment, the status quo appears to be maintained. She said the way security guards’ shifts are structured has also changed to allow overlap between two guards during busier hours, which a guard separately confirmed. 

Cabin Radio contacted the Nova Scotia-based Holloway Lodging Corporation, which owns the upper mall, for this article but received no response.

Ontario-based Slate Asset Management, which owns the lower mall, declined to comment.

Mavinjus Games and Collectibles was one of the first stores to open among a new wave of tenants invigorating the space. 

“It’s been so far so good,” said owner Yanik D’Aigle. “There’s a community within the mall and we all know each other.”

While he said he has witnessed people shoplifting from his store, he said that happens everywhere and isn’t unique to this location.

“Just like any business owner, you need to remain vigilant, know your customer,” said D’Aigle.

He said store owners in the mall have worked together to refer customers to one another.

“We get to know each other more and more each and every day,” said D’Aigle, “and we support each other, both through good times and challenging times.”