Should the city let someone else have Yellowknife’s Wildcat Café?

The Wildcat Café’s annual budget has more than quadrupled, leading some city councillors to wonder whether the historic building is better off in private or non-profit hands.

Originally opened in 1937 and rebuilt about 15 years ago, the latest iteration of the Old Town café is owned by the City of Yellowknife, which farms out operation of the Wildcat to local businesses that pay at least a $2,000 monthly fee.

The city calls the Wildcat a “major drawing card for Yellowknife’s Old Town” and one of Yellowknife’s “best examples of living heritage.” Operators are obliged to keep menu options roughly in line with what you might have found when the original café first opened.

However, the city is on the hook for the building’s upkeep.

The budget for city spending on the building was $26,000 in 2024 but actual spending came in at $51,000. The budget rose to $44,000 in 2025 but the city ended up spending $82,000.

For 2026, the Wildcat’s budget has more than quadrupled to $190,000.

“It was jarring for all of us,” Mayor Ben Hendriksen said of that increase.

City director of community services Grant White said refrigeration and mechanical work is needed inside the building, which suffered an electrical fire last year. $153,000 is allocated to maintenance work alone.

“Should we as a city be owning this facility, or should we hand it over to one of the historical societies or somebody else to run this?” asked councillor Steve Payne during last week’s budget talks.

“I think we do a great job in running it, but somebody else could do a better job.”

At a meeting on Monday evening, councillors will debate a motion that instructs staff “to prepare a recommendation for council on options to divest of the Wildcat Café.”

A similar motion will be discussed at the same meeting regarding the city-owned Mine Training Building.

From 7pm on Monday: Watch city council’s meeting

We already have some insight into councillors’ thinking from last week’s budget discussions.

At the time, councillor Ryan Fequet said the café’s future should be considered among other buildings in a “larger kind of project to look at our assets holistically.”

“It is an asset that needs a lot of of consideration and we have not given it very much consideration,” added Cat McGurk.

“It has not in the past cost the city enough for council to care but now, because we haven’t cared, it is going to cost us a lot of money.”

“I would support assessing it,” said Garett Cochrane. “The difficulty is this is a municipal heritage site. It’s actually protected by bylaw.

“I would really hate to see our first café, one of our few historic buildings, be torn down to become some ostentatious Old Town condo – so I would be in support to assess this, but I am also very much hesitant that this could even be done within the lifespan of this council. I think there’s a lot of work that has to be done.”

A contract is already in place for the Wildcat to be operated as a café in the summer of 2026, so the building’s future seems secure for at least one more season.

More discussion is expected at Monday evening’s meeting.

City manager Stephen Van Dine said last week he would “certainly see the value” in an examination of the Wildcat’s future, “to see if there are alternative means by which to manage relative financial risk to the community, how to enhance its offer, to see how it can be better positioned.”

“All of those questions are reasonable questions and are good policy questions,” Van Dine said.