Is Yellowknife’s northern lights industry getting out of control?

Some Yellowknife aurora tour operators think too many businesses are clogging narrow highways around the city, risking safety and endangering the NWT’s tourism industry.

At last week’s annual meeting of NWT Tourism, which represents dozens of operators, members unanimously passed a resolution calling on the territorial government to intervene.

The resolution urges the GNWT to beef up the way operators are licensed, enforce the rules and assess whether the current number of operators is sustainable.

“We’ve heard a lot from the front lines about conflicts in the field, guests being left behind and not having the proper gear,” Samantha Stuart, a representative of the operator Tłı̨chǫ Adventures and an outgoing member of NWT Tourism’s board, told the annual meeting.

“There are big opportunities for collisions on the highway, people being run over … we want to see more enforcement and safety training on the front lines.”

The NWT’s Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, which is responsible for oversight of the tourism industry, said through a spokesperson it “recognizes the matters raised” and is committed to working collaboratively “on exploring potential paths forward and opportunities to address the concerns.”

A Cabin Radio analysis of 2025 licensing data suggests Yellowknife has 30 to 40 tour operators that consider aurora viewing part of their business – a number that is growing. Not all of those operators are alike.

Some of Yellowknife’s operators have been in business for decades. Some have dedicated land and buildings in the wilderness. Others are much newer and rely on roadside pullouts along the two-lane Ingraham Trail, a highway northeast of the city, for good aurora viewing with no light pollution.

That lack of light can be dangerous.

One tour operator, requesting anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter with Cabin Radio, described pullouts crammed with multiple school buses loaded with tourists in the dead of night. Many tourists, they said, are dressed without high-visibility clothing and there are few light sources. In that environment, the risk of somebody being hit by a vehicle or even being left behind by their tour group increases.

A few businesses have called for the GNWT to take steps like opening territorial parks in winter to offer more space, the operator added, but that risks angering other firms that invested heavily in their own infrastructure because no such space existed.

“There’s so many people coming here and doing business. I know we cannot stop anyone doing business, but safety is a very important thing,” said Verda Law of Yellowknife Tours during the annual meeting.

“I’ve been in the industry for 16 years and I have seen how much the aurora tourism has grown. I’m very happy and thankful for all the people coming here. [But] there’s not enough space.”

Calls for something to be done about Yellowknife’s northern lights industry have been made multiple times in recent years. Last week’s meeting represented the peak of a crescendo.

The resolution, which Law introduced, warned of devastating consequences for the industry if a tragedy occurs.

An accident “could seriously compromise visitor safety and damage the international reputation of the NWT as an aurora viewing destination,” the resolution stated.

Bigger may not be better

Several operators who spoke with Cabin Radio said the current regulations governing tourism make it almost impossible for the territorial government to deny someone a licence.

The resolution passed last week recommends that the NWT department responsible, known as ITI, consider adding mandatory training to the licensing process “to ensure operators have the necessary knowledge and skill to deliver safe, high-quality services.”

Multiple operators have stories of unlicensed individuals picking up unwitting tourists and ferrying them directly to the wilderness in private cars or cabs.

As well as safety issues, some operators say authenticity is at stake.

“The world wants to see Aboriginal people here,” said Chief Fred Sangris of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, speaking at the meeting in his capacity as an NWT Tourism board member.

“The world wants to see what Aboriginal people do. … If you have an operator that lives in Vancouver and comes up here, what’s the story? There is no story.”

Two officials associated with tourism in the territory, each requesting anonymity to discuss a subject about which they were not authorized to speak, said some operators want licences to be limited to Indigenous groups or longtime northerners. But those restrictions would never survive a Charter challenge, the officials said.

The issue is being inflamed by the way some newer businesses are acting, one of the officials added.

They gave the example of a website that appeared this year with a name similar to those of two existing operators, images apparently taken from other operators or generated with AI, and prices far cheaper than existing operators. (The website has since been taken down.)

“People from outside the country will come, they’ll have a rental car and do business. This is something we need to look into,” said Law. “Yellowknife is not a very big place and we need to preserve this high standard of safety and quality.”

NWT Tourism board member Harold Grinde, who runs an outfitting business, warned of the danger of pursuing growth at the expense of quality.

“Big isn’t necessarily better,” Grinde said. “We need to shift the focus from growing to a top-quality experience. The NWT is such a special place and if it becomes too crowded, it’s not that special any more.”

GNWT ‘limited in what we can do’

ITI had representation at last week’s meeting.

Sahara Morin, who started earlier this year as the department’s assistant deputy minister of economic development, said she and her colleagues were “really committed to trying to make this better.”

Morin said the department needs new legislation and improved regulations that give its staff more tools like bulked-up enforcement powers.

“We are fairly limited in what we can do there enforcement-wise,” Morin told the meeting. She said staff are lobbying for the incoming territorial government after the fall 2027 election to make this issue a priority.

“The folks at ITI and the people in the regions you’re working with, they want to go out and apply stricter enforcement mechanisms,” she said.

“This is a huge reputational risk for us if we’re not being seen as a safe destination for aurora tourism.”

Morin said there must be “consequences” for people who violate the rules designed to ensure visitor safety.

“Right now, I think we all know we are limited in that,” she said, “but it’s not something that we take lightly.”