Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 07/05) - Residents of the 250-home Northland trailer court blasted City Hall this week, claiming municipal officials have refused to enforce bylaws within the mid-town development.

The latest flare-up was sparked Sunday, when trailer court officials said Yellowknife bylaw officers refused to remove a transport trailer parked in a fire lane.

BR> Mike Roy, manager of the Northland trailer court, said bylaw officers have ignored the 250-home development. - Andrew Raven/NNSL photo

"Northland(s), for years and years, has felt like a third-world country," said James Clark, who sits on the condominium board that oversees the trailer court.

"We pay the same taxes as everyone else, but we do not get the same services."

Residents and city officials have been at loggerheads for years over the status of the 1000-person trailer park, located on the corner of Franklin Avenue and Old Airport Road. Technically a condominium complex, the streets within Northland do not appear on official city maps and residents are responsible for maintaining their own water and sewer lines.

Clark said Thursday municipal enforcement officers have steered clear of the trailer park and consistently refused to tow abandoned cars, enforce speed limits and respond to noise complaints.

"It is unsafe. About one-seventeenth of Yellowknife's population lives in Northland(s)... and they are getting diddly squat in terms of service," Clark said.

Yellowknife director of public safety Dennis Marchiori disagreed with those claims and said municipal enforcement officers will respond to complaints from the trailer court.

"We treat Northland like any other area of the city," he said.

Sometimes officers cannot respond immediately to calls because they are busy elsewhere, but there is no policy of avoidance, he said.

"We only have so many municipal enforcement division officers on at one time."

Mike Roy, manager of the trailer court, said he called municipal officials Sunday to complain about the Northwest Transport trailer parked in the fire lane. While an officer did have another car towed from the area, the trailer remained in place Wednesday afternoon.

"This is a hazard. What happens if a fire truck or ambulance needs to get through?" Roy asked. The trailer took up about half the fire lane, which skirts between several trailers and a strip mall.

"Everyone in Northland is paying taxes," said Roy. "Bylaw should come in here and protect people like everyone else."

Some residents believe the city has ambitions on the trailer court, which Clark described as a prime piece of real-estate located between downtown Yellowknife and the Range Lake commercial area.

"They would like to have every mobile home in this park gone," said Clark.

Yellowknife mayor Gord Van Tighem was not immediately available to comment on those allegations.

Aside from the strife surrounding municipal enforcement, Clark said Northland was an excellent place to live. "The quality of life here is excellent. You walk to downtown or out to Wal-Mart. There is no better location."