Yellowknife councillors to consider a tax on vacant properties

Yellowknife city councillors are planning to discuss a vacant property tax as one way to incentivize housing development in the city.

Tom McLennan proposed the idea during a Monday meeting. He noted the lack of available land for development is a major roadblock to addressing the need for housing in Yellowknife.

“I believe we must now turn some effort to pushing for the vacant land in our community to be utilized,” he said.

“The design of the tax or fee would be to push those holding vacant land to develop it or sell it to someone who will.”

McLennan said while the city has incentives to encourage the development of vacant property – and complete environmental assessments for properties requiring remediation – what’s missing is “the stick.”

“Incentives alone do not change the landscape for those holding vacant land,” he said.

“If we are to see development on many of the premium vacant lots we see in town, we need to change the cost structure.”

Councillors were generally supportive of discussing the idea further, including how it could fit into other work city staff need to complete before the next municipal election, set to take place in 2026.

Among issues councillors plan to consider is whether such a tax or fee would apply across the municipality or just to vacant lots located downtown.

“I’m really keen to see where this goes. It’s a great conversation,” Rob Warburton said.

“I also want to make sure it turns out to be the thing we want it to do, and doesn’t have impacts in a way that we don’t think about ahead of time.”

Warburton said, for example, if there is not a big market for vacant land, such a tax could force property owners to sell at a lower price, which could in turn affect property taxes and assessments.

City needs a new landfill

Also on Monday, councillors discussed whether to award a nearly $8.1-million contract to build a new landfill cell at the city’s dump to NWT Construction Ltd.

While that is more than $2.3 million over budget, it was the least expensive of the four bids for the project. The city said it can accommodate the extra cost.

The municipality said the dump’s two existing landfill cells are reaching the end of their capacity and a new cell needs to be constructed this year to ensure it can continue to dispose of solid waste.