Whitehorse city council has voted to extend food truck season downtown.
The season typically runs from May 1 to Oct. 31, but vendors this year will be able to get a permit to start earlier or end their season later.
The city and the Yukon government have seven designated sites downtown for food trucks.
The sites are allocated on an annual basis through an application process. Vendors are not permitted to operate anywhere outside of the property that has been allocated to them.
“The origin of the extension came from a couple of vendors who had approached the city to extend their season because a few weeks for them can mean a significant increase in their income,” said Stephanie Chevalier, the city’s economic development coordinator.
Chevalier said after being approached about it, she worked with other city departments and made a simple amendment proposal to city council to have the change made.
“This means that there is no detail about how early they could ask for the permit or how far in the fall they could go,” she said.
Chevalier said that among the seven designated locations, two will be re-allocated to vendors who had the spots last year and wanted to stay again this year.
The remaining five spots will be allocated through a lottery process on April 26.
Chevalier said she is not sure how many vendors will be applying for spots this year. In 2022, only three of the seven spots were used by vendors.
“Our sense is that there is going to be more interest from vendors this year and we are going to fill them all,” she said. “We have three new vendors who approached us this year to participate in the lottery. So, we really hope that this program will be pretty active this year.”
On the Whitehorse bonfire website where applications can be submitted, eight vendors have already shown interest in the downtown spots.
“It’s good for us and the community,” said Taylor De Bruin, who runs Smashed YXY, a burger truck that was set up at a site on the downtown wharf last year.
De Bruin told the News that the only challenge may be the weather.
“Everything is weather dependent,” he said.
“But we are going to make the best of it. At the end of the day, it’s good and beneficial for everyone including the vendors, city and tourism.”
Contact Patrick Egwu at patrick.egwu@yukon-news.com