Yellowknife (Mar 19/03) - Yellowknife badly needs more single family housing lots, but doesn't have the construction capacity to build on them.

To return to a balanced market, the city needs 200 homes a year for the next three years, says realtor James Clark. - Norm Poole/NNSL photo

Those were the two main themes emerging from a Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation forum on housing in the city last week.

The closed event was attended by more than 100 industry insiders, including developers, bankers, landlords, and representatives from all three levels of government.

The CMHC's Sandra Turner said later the turnout was indicative of the extent of the problems the city faces.

"Not a whole lot of new ideas came out of it, but there was agreement on what the key issues are," said Turner.

Those included the need for more project capital and easier financing, the high cost of land development in the city, and the shortfall in building capacity given the lack of skilled trades people.

"I think what we will see now is a working group come out of this that will sit down and hammer out some of the issues."

Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce president David McPherson said with construction season fast approaching, the shortage of trades people must be addressed quickly.

"Right now project financing isn't a problem, land is available and the city is ready to move," said McPherson.

"The problem is we don't have the workforce here to build the number of units that we need."

Mayor Gord Van Tighem said one solution may be to increase the use of wood-frame pre-fabs that can be assembled quickly.

The meeting included several large southern developers interested in building in the city, he noted.

"I spent most of the next day and a half after the forum talking to private sector people about different projects.

"Some of these companies were new to Yellowknife and are looking at what they might do here."

He added that although lot prices continue to be an issue, developed lots in Yellowknife are currently "about one half" that in Edmonton.

Veteran city realtor James Clark of Homelife said the city should look beyond Niven Lake at a large-scale satellite subdivision as soon as possible.

"There are lots of ideas out there, but what this city needs is more available land -- and especially affordable land."

Clark estimated the city needs about 200 new homes a year for the next two or three years to return to a balanced market.

MLA Bill Braden (Great Slave Lake) agreed.

"We tend to think smaller than we should. A few dozen lots here and there isn't going to solve the problem.

"We should be looking at a satellite community -- something that takes the city into the next decade or two. The other side of the airport is a logical location."