Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Aklavik (Jun 16/00) - Aklavik has some new ammunition to fight an old war.

The mayor and council have recently passed a new bylaw that will force messy land holders to clean up or pay up.

"We went through and passed an unsightly bylaw to help us to go onto private lands and properties to clean up these areas," said Mayor Richard Gordon.

"We've made requests in the past, but they haven't responded and there was nothing we could do legally, but now we have this bylaw in place."

The law is acted upon in three stages, Gordon said. The owner is first given a verbal warning, then a written notice, followed by a fine that could be as high as $100 per day for non-compliance.

"If it still isn't done, the hamlet will go onto that yard and clean it up and then turn around and charge the cost back to the land owner," he said.

At last month's meeting of the Northwest Territories Association of Municipalities, the hamlet put forth a motion requesting $150,000 from the territorial government to help clean up properties that were discarded following the move to East-3 (now Inuvik) in the late 1950s. "They left behind all these buildings, barrels and old machinery just lying here and there," Gordon said. "As the owners of the community, we don't have the resources to clean this up."

Deputy mayor John Banksland headed up the motion, saying the onus is on the federal and territorial government to pay for the cost of the cleanup.

With the offer of free lots, a free house and 15 per cent for disturbance, Banksland said the government lured these businesses and people away from Aklavik, without consideration for the waste and the people left behind.

"I can trace it back directly to 1955 and 1956," he said. "The government of the day was encouraging people to move over to East-3."

Out of sight, out of mind

He points out the dilapidated Roman Catholic church and grounds, a former construction company property that sits across the street from the brand-new visitor's centre. The lot is littered with a burned-out building, the steel shell of a trailer, a grader and other derelict machinery.

"The attitude of the owner is, 'Out of sight, out of mind,' they don't have to put up with looking at this crap every day," he said.

"We could concentrate on making this a beautiful area, look at the wildlife here," he said, gesturing to the ducks on a nearby pond.

Banksland said it's impossible to promote tourism without a major cleanup, and the garbage lots have also had a negative effect on the attitudes of some people in the community.

"We have kids who grew up here and look at it and say, 'What's wrong with that?'" Banksland said. "So, they come out of Northern Store or the General Store and throw their garbage on the ground."

He said the new bylaws will help pressure the owners into cleaning up their properties, but then the hamlet will be left with the most expensive part -- disposal of tons of concrete and scrap steel.

"We'll make them feel quite uncomfortable in the fact that this lot has affected the whole community for all these years," he said.

"The cost of the actual cleanup is not that much, it's getting rid of the stuff that costs the most. MACA only gives us a certain amount of money to look after this stuff."

"Someone is responsible for this and I don't think it should be the hamlet's responsibility," he said.

The mayor and council have invited Premier Stephen Kakfwi to Aklavik to discuss the situation.