Yellowknife election 2026: Fraser Fuite interview

Fraser Fuite, a teacher by trade, is running for Yellowknife City Council in this month’s municipal election.

He moved to Yellowknife with his wife after she took a GNWT job and says he quickly fell in love with the city.

Fuite sold corn at the Yellowknife Farmers Market this summer, volunteers with a Rotaract club and may be best known for riding an electric unicycle around the city.

His campaign is focused on housing and homelessness, public safety and innovative approaches to municipal issues.

He says he would bring a focus on compassion and practical solutions to council, including changes to how the city approaches housing and supports people experiencing homelessness.

Cabin Radio is aiming to interview all 21 candidates 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 hosted a mayoral candidates’ debate on October 5 at City Hall. You can watch the debate on Cabin Radio’s Facebook page or listen to it on Spotify.

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

---

This interview was recorded on October 1, 2026. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Eshana Gohil: Why do you want to serve on Yellowknife City Council?

Fraser Fuite: Because I’m really enthused about the very real changes for the better in people’s lives that can be done at the municipal level generally, and Yellowknife in particular. 

In Canada, for the last four generations or something, every generation has had a better life than their parents. An easier life. Especially in respect to getting by, housing and quality of life.

I’m part of the first generation where that’s not the case, where in many respects it’s harder to get by, especially in respect to cost of living and housing. It’s gone up. I think a large part of the reason for that, from my research and experience, is because municipalities have incentives that shoot up the cost of living. 

What do you see as the biggest gap in Yellowknife’s housing right now, and what role should city council play in addressing it? 

The thing with housing is that it’s hard to answer what gap in particular there is, because housing is so constrained that helping anywhere will help everywhere.

Just an anecdote: I am a homeowner. I live in a little double-side modular place, and I was just building something out front when a family drove by in their van, two kids and a husband and wife. They were like, ‘Are you renting out that place? Do you know anyone who is renting out their place? We literally got a job here, we just moved here and we can find nowhere for our family to live.’

They were willing to live in way more cramped conditions than they would want, just because they could find nowhere. They can’t find a place they want. If you build a nice house with a yard, they would buy that and free up a more apartmenty place that maybe a professional couple might want. 

Are there particular types of housing or changes to the city’s approach that you think are most needed? 

Absolutely, and again, I think a lot of the problems in Yellowknife exist in other municipalities around Canada. We just have unusually high rents because of our unique additional problems. But basically, you fix the things with housing that can be fixed in other jurisdictions, and I think that will bring Yellowknife way closer to normal. 

One example of a policy that cities in general are bad at, but I think would be good, is bringing back the boarding house.

I believe this can be done in a perfectly orderly way. Students live like this a lot, and I see no reason why a single professional person, of which there are many in this town, wouldn’t accept this sort of living for a reduced rent and for any housing availability whatsoever. 

What do you think is the most important thing the city can do to address homelessness in Yellowknife, and where should the city’s responsibility begin and end compared with the territorial government and other organizations?

The only thing that will solve homelessness is the housing people need.

I have encountered a ton of people who are not particularly self-destructive and yet, for whatever reason, don’t have very high incomes and they couch surf. They are couch surfing right now because the rent for a single room is just too high. We just build a boarding house, is what I’m saying, they’ll do fine. And a lot of people in that state of couch surfing homelessness will have a place. 

As I sadly found out the hard way, a lot of folks do need housing, but most housing will not work for them because one way or the other, sort of self-destructive tendencies exist, or self-maintenance techniques don’t exist that are necessary for successful living in an apartment.

In other words, the city really also needs to support, particularly in a regulatory and providing space way, but also distributing the federal and territorial funds that exist to create supportive housing.

There is a waiting list for what exists already. We just need more of it. 

How would council measure whether the city’s approach to homelessness is actually working?

I think that one can tell, honestly, even without very complicated statistics or studies. Just ask people their living situation, do a survey, ask people honestly and see the usage of various services that cater to the homeless community. 

What do you think are the biggest public safety concerns facing Yellowknife right now, and what can city council realistically do to address them?

This is one that I, again, want to move forward in both strength and compassion, which need to go together. They’re very compatible.

I think every Yellowknifer knows that almost every homeless person has experienced traumas that you don’t want anyone to experience. And I mean, I have trauma in my life, but come on, it’s way more what they’ve experienced. I’ve seen people start fighting publicly and scream at me and the general public, and you know what? If that would make them better, I’d accept it. That would be a fair cost to make the trauma better, but it’s not making the trauma better. 

I am going to write on my platform that we need a return to standards that are reasonable within the context of people’s psychology. Talk to bylaw officers, they say that alcohol is an important factor in a lot of altercations, a lot of instances of harassment. The current law says, ‘you cannot drink alcohol in a public place.’ That simply is not reasonable for people who are addicted and who only have a public place. They don’t have a private place, so we need to set the real standard of where you can drink and be drunk in a public place and where you cannot.

Furthermore, harassment. There has to be a small but reliable consequence for actually causing a problem, actually making people around you worse. A few bylaw officers I’ve talked to have requested the ability to, in some way, take it from them as a consequence, or at least have that plausible threat there. This is a complicated legislative thing, but from my reading of the Liquor Act, it seems possible.

When you talk about innovation in Yellowknife, what does that mean to you in practical terms and where do you think the city has the most opportunity to try something different?

First of all, we’re already an extremely innovative place. The houseboats genuinely are a massive example of that, and the Snowcastle they build every year, and the general solutions we find to working with our environment; the ice road. This place is so interesting, so cool. I love it. 

I think innovation is something I would well represent on council, and I’m interested in advancing little ideas that perhaps aren’t so common to think of.

For one, I mentioned that I think Yellowknife needs a cooler flag. We already have a great coat of arms. I support keeping it. It’s awesome. But I think we should have a similar process to make a flag that is aesthetically pleasing. Tłı̨chǫ Nation, now that’s a beautiful flag, and for that reason you see a bunch of people just wear it everywhere, tattoo it on themselves, because it’s beautiful.

One other small matter that comes to mind is increasing the speed of workers with homeless folks, such as the Home Base patrols and bylaw officers. Electric scooters or even normal step scooters that would allow people to cover more area as a part of their work and increase the productivity per hour of what these workers can do.

What role do you think the city should play in making Yellowknife’s municipal services more reflective of the languages and cultures of the people who live here?

I’m proposing a particular initiative that, again, should be small and voluntary. But again, the city uses its voice to get everyone in the same room and on the same page here. What I propose is that service workers have a very clear and standardized way to express what languages they speak. I suggest a little lapel pin with maybe a little fleur-de-lis for French and right below, an indication of how good you are at speaking that language. 

I also think, Red Apple. I’ve never seen a greater concentration of Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì and other Dene language speakers. Have a little language group at the back of the Red Apple to practice Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì, and just see if any of the old folks who go over there would be interested in this sort of thing. Pardon me, I need to talk with the owner of that institution and some of the old patrons there. But just as an example, find where people are open to speaking the languages and support that. 

What is your familiarity with council, and have you watched a council meeting before?

I certainly have been to council meetings before, and I’ve really had an awful lot of conversations with city councillors about various aspects of their work and certain policies that I’ve been lobbying for. 

I’ve been following the housing issue in particular for some time – as you can tell, it’s a preoccupation of mine – and I have really respected the opinions of Rob Warburton in these matters. 

Other than what we’ve talked about today, what are reasons people should vote for you?

I’m going to answer that question with an anecdote. When I was six years old, someone explained to me what meat was – that meat was an animal they kill and then eat. From that moment on, I was like, ‘Oh gosh, I’m gonna not eat meat any more.’ I just would refuse to eat the meat that was offered until people caught on and started serving me tofu. 

I think that shows I’m the same guy I was 25 years ago. Whenever a matter of compassion comes up that requires force of will, I can provide those things.