Yellowknife election 2026: Andy Young interview

Andy Young says he is “looking to give back” by running for a seat on Yellowknife City Council this fall.

Young said he has lived in Yellowknife for more than half of his life since moving the city in the early days of diamond mining. He said he has long worked in the mining exploration service sector, met his wife in Yellowknife, and they are raising their children in the city.

He has volunteered with the Yellowknife Coast Guard marine rescue unit for more than eight years, coaches minor hockey, was a foster parent and has served on the board of the Great Slave Yacht Club.

Young’s council platform prioritizes sustainable budgeting and taxes, increasing housing availability, economic transition and public safety.

“There’s huge opportunity on a go-forward basis, and I’d like to make sure we capitalize on that in a fashion that’s going to benefit my kids and the kids of the community,” he said.

“Yellowknife doesn’t have to be a boom and bust town. If we manage our money correctly, put in the right services at the right costs, we can have successes on a number of different levels.”

Cabin Radio is aiming to interview all 21 candidates are running for eight council seats. We have asked every candidate to list their four top priorities to guide those interviews.

Melissa Syer and Garett Cochrane are running for mayor.

Cabin Radio is hosting a mayoral candidates’ debate on October 5 from 7-8:30pm at City Hall, which will be broadcast live on our Facebook page, website and app.

Election day is October 19. Early voting begins on October 5 and runs until October 16.

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This interview was recorded on September 29. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Emily Blake: Why do you want to be a city councillor?

Andy Young: It’s about the giving back. I think there’s a need for a stable approach going forward, so we can maintain that sustainability. In saying that, the tax increases that property owners and businesses alike have seen over the last number of years aren’t sustainable. So we need to have a deep dive on how we’re doing business at the city level.

Maybe there’s a few programs that overlap. Maybe there’s some programs or services that can be done a little differently so we can get some cost savings out of those, ultimately with the goal of not increasing taxes on our tax base. Our tax base, yes, needs to grow.

Many of us candidates are probably going to say the same thing, and rightfully so. We can’t just keep increasing taxes on the working class and small businesses indefinitely.

We asked every candidate for four priorities. One of the first you mentioned was the budget and taxes. As a councillor, what do you think you would do?

It’s a group initiative to get to common ground with eight councillors and the mayor all having input. I think I’d like to see the city get to a position where we’re largely reverse-engineering the budget.

Our mandate is for four years, should I be lucky enough to get a seat at the table. Let’s look at those four years. Let’s put out a budget and a forecast that incorporates what we know today and what we predict is going to happen four years down the road.

Let’s look where tax increases might be acceptable or needed as we plan for the future. Not all that different from things like a collective bargaining agreement. Those things aren’t year over year for a couple of years. They generally have a little more shelf life to them.

Right now on the tax front, I believe we’re being probably taxed a little on the high side. Maybe once you do the deep dive on the current services and the cost of those services on a go-forward basis, maybe we find out that we’re kind-of prepaying some of those taxes. And maybe there’s a way that we can get to a balanced budget for the next couple of years and not see tax increases, and if future tax increases over the term of the next council would more closely reflect the consumer price index.

Things do inherently cost more as time progresses, be it fuel increases or whatnot. I think we need to get back to a sustainable budget and sustainable tax increases.

Another priority you mentioned was housing availability. What would you like to see the city do in this area?

I think the city is doing a lot of great things currently in terms of freeing up land, opening up land from the territorial government, so we have access to the land to incorporate into our community plan and build neighbourhoods as needed.

It has to be a phased approach and it has to be sustainable. We can’t just go out and put water and sewer to 300 lots. There has to be interest from the consumer, people wanting to move into town, people looking to build a life here. And leapfrog from one to the other in terms of a phased approach to development.

I guess to take it a little bit further, land from the territorial government is one step. The other approach that’s got some traction is infill within the city. If you’re developing something in a neighbourhood that already has water and sewer, as an example – and trash collection, that sort of thing – it’s much easier to not incur additional cost on that front.

Going into greenfield, Frame Lake North as an example, there’s obviously going to be substantially more cost as you’re looking to bring in the water and sewer and add those collection routes.

Another priority you mentioned was economic transition. As a councillor, how would you like to help the city navigate that?

We’ve traditionally been a government town of sorts with a secondary focus on mining and mineral extraction. It went from gold to diamonds. Our gold mines are all closed with the exception of the Mon mine just north of town, which is a small, small mining operation, I believe it’s seasonal. And then we transitioned into diamonds, and diamonds have definitely lost their lustre in the last couple of years. We’ve got one mine still in production with a limited shelf life, by the looks of it.

Transitioning doesn’t mean relying solely on government programs, government funding, be it the the billions of dollars that’s out there now. We need to maintain a focus on what we’ve been good at and look to carry that forward.

I am pro mining, but I’m pro sustainable mining. There’s lots of legacy of the North being taken advantage of from the extraction sector. I won’t single anybody out. But we’ve also got some modern-day successes. Rio Tinto and Diavik have pumped significant amounts of money back into the city, the territory as a whole. Aand I think that deserves a bit of recognition that I’m not sure it’s getting.

As an example, a couple of years ago, I believe, they started the Northern Legacy Fund within the city with the aim of generating sponsorships for Yellowknife initiatives. So that’s a very good legacy, something to carry forward.

Maybe somebody like the federal government – with the remediation that’s happening in the North over a number of years, using Yellowknife as its hub, and the current proposal to go forward with billions in infrastructure initiatives – maybe we can advocate to the federal government that they should match Rio Tinto and look to grow that fund.

It’s a drop in the bucket, sure, but every drop in that funding bucket – be it 10 cents, $5 – is money the taxpayer of Yellowknife doesn’t have to pay.

The last priority you mentioned was public safety. What would success in this area at the city level look like to you?

Public safety is a broad range from a municipal enforcement side of things. It’s not just the tint on [vehicle] windows, because that’s a new thing. It’s not finding another means of taxing the taxpayer or business owner because they’re doing something different. It’s bigger. We’ve got a homelessness issue in Yellowknife, everybody knows it. There are inherent safety concerns and risks that come with that. There’s a whole gamut of issues intertwined within that.

But let’s also look at low-hanging fruit: e-bikes, e-scooters. We’ve talked about it, we hear about it on social media. It’s not an ‘if something happens,’ it’s a when. Let’s get proactive and get some guidance put forward for our youth, so they know what they can and can’t do with those devices. Let’s make sure we’re taking care of that low-hanging fruit and protecting our youth.

You mentioned a lot of your priorities are interconnected. How do you see that interconnection?

Yellowknife, as everybody knows, is a dynamic city. There’s people leaving, there’s people coming. But we’re a small city. Everybody knows somebody. You don’t have to go far, it takes 15 minutes to get across town.

Be it a lack of development to overcrowding in some instances, to homelessness, to small businesses that are there one day and the doors are shuttered the next day, and then the following week there’s potentially a new business in that location, if we’re lucky – there’s no shortage of conversations that can be had about how Yellowknife issues are intertwined and interconnected, but what we share collectively is the will to see Yellowknife and the North be all it can be.

What is your familiarity with city council and its meetings and the work it’s doing at City Hall?

I don’t tune into the council meetings, if ever. I get most of my information through outlets like Cabin Radio, some on CBC North, the Yellowknifer when I get the chance to pick up the paper.

Beyond that, conversations, word of mouth. You talk to people, you’re enlightened to something that’s happening, which is usually their view of events. But that’s all part of being a community. You have to look at both sides of the conversation, which I think I do bring to the table. It’s being able to be the devil’s advocate and look at it from the other side without bias, and ultimately with the goal of coming up with a solution and moving forward sustainably.

Twenty-one candidates are running for council. Why would you say that people should vote for you?

While I’m not born in Yellowknife, I’ve been here half my life. I’m not looking to leave Yellowknife. I have no ulterior motive. I’m not a business owner, I’m not a developer, I have no aspirations to be any of those things. I care about Yellowknife. I came here for opportunity, I found it.

I think there’s huge opportunity on a go-forward basis, and I’d like to make sure we capitalize on that in a fashion that’s going to benefit my kids and the kids of the community.

Yellowknife doesn’t have to be a boom and bust town. If we manage our money correctly, put in the right services at the right costs, we can have successes on a number of different levels.