Yellowknife (July 19/04) - A showdown is looming over undeveloped land within city limits.

The Yellowknives Dene say they will take the city and territorial government to court unless they stop negotiating land transfers while land claims remain unresolved.

Yellowknives community negotiator Fred Sangris points to a map showing a huge swath of land the First Nation is interested in acquiring, including Yellowknife. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo

Fred Sangris, community negotiator with the Yellowknives Dene, accused the territorial government of breaking a 1992 agreement not to transfer any more land to City Hall.

And he said the city effectively tore up a memorandum of understanding by not talking to the Yellowknives about intentions to acquire the Con Camp trailer courts plus several other parcels of commissioner's land throughout the city.

"If the city administrators and city were very honest and sincerely wanted to work with the Yellowknives Dene, they should've come to us and worked out these arrangements," said Sangris.

He said the city and Municipal and Community Affairs bureaucrats have left the Yellowknives out of any land discussions.

"If we decide to go to court, the city and MACA are going to get caught with their pants down for all the wrongs they've been doing the last few years."

He said, if anything, the Con Camp land -- as well as several other lots transferred to the city since 1992 -- rightfully belongs to the Dene. He said they're willing to let the Con residents stay as long as they lease the land under their trailers.

The city passed a bylaw last month authorizing the sale of land to Con trailer residents. They want them to pay $1.1 million, including clean-up costs for any possible arsenic contamination.

City 'lied' to trailer owners

"I think (the city) probably lied to the trailer courts," said Sangris.

"The city should've been truthful with these guys and said: 'Look, we can't get that land.'"

Sangris said the Yellowknives Dene are currently considering acquiring all commissioner's land within city limits.

They hope to establish another settlement in the area because they're running out of room in Ndilo and Dettah.

He said they have no desire to stop future growth in the city, but Yellowknife should be prepared to deal with them as the new landlords over undeveloped lands.

Sangris said they're also interested in acquiring Tin Can Hill and lands identified by the city for future development south of Con Mine in the 2004 draft general plan.

"If worse comes to worse, we're going to set up tents right in front of City Hall and demand they respect our rights," said Sangris.

"If they don't live up to it, we'll do the same thing with the legislative assembly."

Acting mayor Wendy Bisaro said it's possible the city hasn't done all that it could do to fulfill its obligations under the two-year-old MOU with the Yellowknives Dene, but it's two-way street.

"A lot of that could come down to interpretation," said Bisaro.

"They might not tell us something and we think: 'Wow, you're supposed to tell us about that.'"

She said the city is following the territorial government's rules for acquiring new lands.

"The land-lease only policy, we know it's there, but if there is a good enough reason and cabinet decides it's a good reason, cabinet can override it," said Bisaro.

Coun. Kevin O'Reilly warned fellow councillors in recent months that taking on new land could stir up trouble with the Yellowknives.

"Hopefully, there's a way we can work together and resolve this," he said.

Con Camp resident Lorna Skinner said she was unaware that the Yellowknives want to be their landlords but didn't want to comment any further.

MACA director 'shocked'

Brian Austin, MACA's director of lands and infrastructure, said he is "shocked" that the Yellowknives Dene are making an issue out of the Con Camp situation now.

He said MACA sent a notice to the Yellowknives months ago expressing the city's intention to acquire the land but did not receive a response. After the Yellowknives got word of the sale, however, and objected to it, he said a 60-day waiting period was extended by Premier Joe Handley another month. That period expires at the end of this month.

"They acknowledged they received it but didn't respond to the information within the time prescribed in the (Akaitcho) Interim Measures Agreement," said Austin.

"So we, of course, assumed that it wasn't a concern and moved the thing forward."

Sangris said the Interim Measures Agreement is moot right now because the federal government has yet to provide funding to them to initiate it.

Regardless, Sangris said just because they didn't send in a response doesn't mean they don't want the land.