Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 25/02) - The heat and hot water are back on, but life in the Mackenzie Place is anything but rosy.

Town council is worried about huge propane tanks installed outside the troubled downtown highrise and the receiver is foreclosing.

Financial troubles came to a head March 14 when heat and hot water were cut off when Stittco, a utility that pipes propane to most downtown buildings cut off the supply. The building's owner, Westworth Ltd., owes Stittco $192,000.

Thirty families in the nearly empty 17-storey Mackenzie Place had heat and hot water restored after a day and a half when Superior Propane installed large propane tanks outside the highrise.

Stittco manager Noel Demarcke said the unpaid debt will not likely force the utility to apply for a rate increase.

Westworth is in receivership, and Toronto-based mortgage holder Equitable Trust used a court order March 14 to take over the building.

Equitable's lawyer, Lou Walsh, said the company's plan, "is just to leave everything running as it is. There are no big plans for any big changes."

Jack Thorpe, of Edmonton-based Scandinavian Properties, is in Hay River acting as property's receiver.

Walsh expects that Westworth will be served with a statement of claim "shortly." Upon receiving the claim, Westworth will have 25 days to file a statement of defence.

"It's sort of pay up or we proceed," with foreclosure, said Walsh.

Calls to Equitable Trust's Toronto offices were not returned by press time.

The highrise's pro blems may not be over.

At town council March 18, some councillors expressed concern about safety and the esthetics of large propane tanks downtown.

"I don't want to see the heat turned off again but we don't want to see tanks in the downtown core," said Vern Tordoff.

In the late 1980s, the town made the federal government remove propane tanks from the post office. When Stittco installed its underground pipes in 1992, council expressed intentions to keep propane tanks out of downtown.

At the same time, Mackenzie Place wanted to install tanks but was not allowed, said Mayor Duncan McNeill.