The Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce says the territorial government should move quickly on a proposal to build Aurora College’s North Slave campus at Centre Square Mall.
The chamber said this week it has written to NWT education minister Caitlin Cleveland expressing support for the idea, calling it a “rare, time-limited opportunity” to strengthen post-secondary education and revitalize downtown Yellowknife.
“No other project before us carries this level of transformational impact,” chamber president Mark Henry stated in a news release.
Aurora College has been working to transform itself into a polytechnic university since 2018 but progress has stalled. A new Yellowknife campus is seen as one part of that transformation, but building one from scratch would require hundreds of millions of dollars that the GNWT does not currently possess.
The chamber, in an email after this article was first published, said that’s a key attraction of the mall proposal: it would cost “approximately one seventh to one tenth” of a prior proposal to build a campus on the Tin Can Hill green space, the chamber asserted.
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The plan to build on Tin Can Hill appears to have been scrapped. The City of Yellowknife terminated a memorandum of understanding earlier this year that set aside some of the hill for a campus. City Hall cited the lack of available territorial funding to build that vision and the city’s own need for developable land.
In ending the MOU, the city told Aurora College president Angela James it “would be pleased to assist you in finding alternative sites, including in the downtown core area.”
The idea of a Centre Square Mall campus has circulated since at least 2018, when then-Yellowknife North MLA Cory Vanthuyne proposed it.
The mall’s lower level was purchased by Nunastar, the company that owns the Explorer Hotel, in July this year. The company has said it is open to “institutional” uses.
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The chamber says the Centre Square Mall proposal would drive investment in new student housing and bring “sustained, productive activity” to the downtown core.
“Providing direction at this stage would help give local businesses and property owners the certainty needed to prepare for this opportunity,” the chamber stated.
Cleveland has said the territorial government remains committed to the polytechnic transformation, but has acknowledged a “shiny new campus” is just one part of the work required.
