Posts tagged Yellowknife
There’s a New Player in Town
Jan 24th
The much anticipated Nico’s Market opened this week and it looks like it could be a winner. Chef Pierre, who also owns Le Stock Pot, l’Heritage and Le Frolic has opened his latest venture. I have some more pictures posted here.
I went to the new market on Saturday as part of my Saturday grocery shopping routine and was quite happy with what I saw. I had heard that Le Stock Pot was moving their kitchen supplies over to the new store and there was indeed an entire section for all the high quality knives, pots & pan and other kitchen gadgets that were available at the old location.
The market also has a bright produce section right up front with a dairy case at the back and shelves of the same kinds of oils, vinegars, relishes, jams, condiments of all sorts and other food stuffs that we were used to seeing at Le Stock Pot. There is also a butcher section for fresh meats, a Deli area for sliced meats and cheeses, an Antipasto section that has various dips & spreads like hummus, antipasto, salsa, spinach dip etc., a salad bar and a cafe that serves sandwiches and coffees. They also have a section with bulk coffee beans and a rack full of linens that used to be in a small room at the old store.
Here are my thoughts on what I saw. I liked most of the layout of the store. The produce was up front which was nice although with it up front they are going to have to make sure that it is always full and fresh. A less than brilliant looking produce section might just send customers away before they even get into the store. The dairy case was just another dairy case and unless they are going to carry things like rice milk, soy milk, almond milk, greek yogourts and other specialty items then it doesn’t really fit with the rest of the items in the store.
Geothermal Heating Project in Yellowknife Gets Federal Funding
Jan 11th
In April 2009 I attended the Design Yellowknife: Community Conference and Charrette. This was a 4 day event that involved interested citizens along with various city and government employees, engineers of various kinds, urban planners and architects just to name a few of the groups that participated. I was an interested citizen and my reasons for doing the conference was to be more involved in the city, learn more about the place I live, meet new people and get an idea of what the future of Yellowknife will be like. I must say that it was a very rewarding 4 days and I learned a lot about the history of and future plans for Yellowknife.
It was at this conference that I first heard about the idea of Con Mine being used to help heat the downtown core of Yellowknife using geothermal heat. What an interesting concept. Con Mine was one of the 2 gold mines that used to operate in Yellowknife and was closed in 2003. Since one of the mine tunnels runs close to the downtown core it would make sense to use the energy to heat this area.
Back in early 2008 the city had a feasibility study done which showed that Con Mine has the potential to be used as a heat resource for the City of Yellowknife. The resource, if developed could significantly reduce the City’s dependency on fossil fuel, make savings on energy costs, and reduce carbon emissions. This would be a great use of an alternate energy source.
The City of Yellowknife then submitted a plan to the federal government’s $1-billion Clean Energy Fund asking for funds to cover half the project’s estimated cost of $32 million.
It was announced by Natural Resources Canada and reported by CBC today that the city has been successful along with 18 other applicants to share in up to $146 million over the next 5 years. The Northern Application of a Geothermal District Heating System Project with the lead proponent being the City of Yellowknife was listed as one of the projects that is to receive between $10 and $20 million over the next 5 years. This is great news and this is something that will help to reduce energy costs and green house gases in Northern Canada; a place that is famous for its clean, clear air.
All that remains now is for a written contribution agreement to be signed by both parties, and until this is done there is no commitment or obligation existing on the part of the Government of Canada to make a financial contribution to these projects. We will keep our fingers crossed that the “t”s are crossed, the “i”s are dotted and the John Hancocks are added to the signature lines real soon so that this project can start to progress as a viable source of alternative energy. Great job and vision by the City of Yellowknife.
Technorati Tags: City of Yellowknife – fossil fuel – Natural Resources Canada – Clean Energy Fund – clean energy – Yellowknife – geothermal – Con Mine
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No to Macs…The Right Decision
Jan 6th
Since I work in “education” I am always interested to read or receive articles dealing with technology in K-12 education I am always looking to see how others are using technology in their districts, schools or classrooms. Mastermaq sent me this article this morning that made my day.
The Toronto District School Board decided late last year to stop purchasing Mac computers as a cost saving measure. I must say that the TDSB made the right decision no matter that one of their school board trustees has now come out and questioned the decision.
The Yellowknife Education District #1 (YK1) made the same decision 4 years ago and it is a decision that I have to manage and defend on an almost daily basis as the Manager of Information Technology Services. What Lee Stem, the general manager of IT services at TDSB, talks about with cost savings with the current trend of applications moving to the web is right on the mark. Mac computers cost roughly double what an equivalent or even higher level PC costs. Since both platforms can do the same things and with the emergence of web based applications anyway, the hardware is becoming less important every day. Having an internet connection with a computer running a browser is all you need for much of what people need to do.
Weather Conspiracy
Jan 5th
How many of you pay attention to the weekly weather forecasts in your area? In the Arctic, we look at the upcoming weather regularly as it dictates what we can plan for the week. At least in the winter this is important. I mean, who wants to go cross-country skiing or snowshoeing in -40° weather when they can wait a couple of days until it warms up to -35° C?
On Sunday when MasterMaq and Sharon Y. were preparing to leave Yellowknife I checked the weather forecast both for Edmonton, where they live and were headed back to, and Yellowknife (#yzf for you Twitter people), where they had been visiting us for a week. Their trip to Yellowknife started off with some modest -20° C temperatures the first 2 days which allowed them to go dog sledding but it quickly turned colder and they were forced to endure -30° C or colder weather for the better part of their visit.
So, Environment Canada’s weatheroffice website showed that Edmonton was supposed to get warmer with highs reaching 0° C by Saturday the 9th. The site also showed that Yellowknife was also supposed to get to 0° C by Saturday. For the north, that would be a big bonus considering we are just starting our coldest part of the year. In fact they list the warming trend that is supposed to start tomorrow as an “abnormal temperature trend”. Checking the website again last night I noticed that the forecast had changed and was now showing -10° C as the high for Saturday. This morning I checked the weather forecast again and now it is showing -14° C as the high. I am starting to feel that by Saturday we will just get our normal temperatures.
I have noticed this type of forecasting in the winter before. It’s almost like they are trying to pull a cruel joke on us northerners. Or maybe, just maybe, the GNWT is conspiring with EC to inflate longer term weather forecasts. The reason you ask? Simple!
There are 2 reasons. The first is they want it to look warmer to entice visitors to the north. Yellowknife especially has a large visitor boom in the winter as people flock from every imaginable place to see the northern lights (Aurora Borealis). Yellowknife is known around the world as a great place to view this phenomenon (although MasterMaq and Sharon Y. would disagree as they had clear weather every night here and didn’t see them once). The second reason is to play mind games with those of us who live in the north. Many look at the temperatures and start to think of leaving, either for warm vacations or moving to warmer climes but when we see that it is warming up those thoughts are put on the back burner until the next time those forecasts drop.
The funny thing is how this always seems to happen around the same time every year which is why it seems like a conspiracy.
UPDATE: As of Thursday, January 7th, 2010 the forecast for Yellowknife this Saturday is -19° C. I guess I was right after all.
Technorati Tags: weather – weather forecast – temperatures – Yellowknife – winter – Environment Canada
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