After years boasting the title of “Diamond Capital of North America,” the City of Yellowknife is looking to redefine its brand as diamond mines sunset and other opportunities — like massive federal investment into defence — appear on the horizon. 

The goal of the exercise is to land on branding that would attract new residents to move to Yellowknife and stay in the long term. 

For Patti Bligh, who retired to Yellowknife from Cambridge Bay, the key to that is the people. 

“They’ll come for the adventure and they’ll come maybe for the money, or they’ll come because they’re trying to escape something,” she said. “But they’ll stay because [of] the people, and the people here are lovely.”

Part of the branding proposed by city staff to councillors at a committee meeting on Wednesday overlapped with Bligh’s sentiment. 

The messaging presented in a presentation emphasized community and belonging, on top of other key themes such as opportunity and ambition, resilience and grit, as well as connection to land and memory. 

The city hired a consultant who worked with 15 Yellowknife “champions” to delineate what they thought made Yellowknife special to guide the new branding.

Work so far yielded an umbrella message to use in campaigns moving forward: “Yellowknife isn’t for everyone. It’s a place to settle for those who don’t like to settle. It’s the start of a life worth living.”

City staff told councillors the aim of the new branding was to create a cohesive story with broad general themes that would be reflected in future communications.

“It won’t be as blatant and overt as one ad,” said Kerry Thistle, director of opportunities, investments and partnerships with the City of Yellowknife. 

“It’ll be more of a general theme that we hope is reflected in the months and years to come.”

Councillors voiced general support for the work on the branding so far, but also offered some feedback. 

Among them, Coun. Cat McGurk asked for the branding to acknowledge and reflect local Indigenous peoples to a greater extent.

“I think if we’re borrowing language like the land remembers, which is commonly used by Indigenous communities and very much tied into that, I think that we should honour that more,” McGurk said.

Coun. Rob Foote also raised concerns about the “Yellowknife isn’t for everyone” part of the core messaging potentially sounding too exclusive. 

Coun. Steve Payne said he wanted the branding to reflect stories of all Yellowknifers, including those choosing to stay despite personal struggles.

Thistle said the feedback was welcome and the city would work with its consultant to integrate it. 

The city also plans to work with local stakeholders like the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce and Aurora College to share the branding with them if they are interested in using it for their own purposes. 

Thistle said she is hopeful to start rolling out the adjusted branding next month.

Mayor Ben Hendriksen said now is a good time to review the city’s branding because things are changing on the economic, reconciliation and community development fronts. 

Yellowknife has been facing a housing shortage, but he said the city can’t afford to wait for more housing to open up before trying to attract new residents.

“As a community, we need teachers, we need nurses, we need people who are innovators and entrepreneurs,” he said. “So it’s about doing all of that work at the same time.”