Jason Unrau
Northern News Services
Friday, April 6, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - People will get a chance to review plans for a $500,000 RV park next week.

Industry, Tourism and Investment, the territorial government department steering the project proposed for Long Lake near the Folk on the Rocks site, has announced an "information session" to take place April 11, beginning at 7 p.m. at the Museum Café at the Northern Heritage Centre.

"The session will be preliminary and there will be additional consultations to take place subsequently," said Philip Lee, North Slave superintendent for ITI.

The park came to an issue in early March after an estimated 30 tonnes of crushed glass was dumped on the site as fill material. The glass was dumped in an area used for parking by people attending the summer festival. That area is owned by the Department of Transportation (DOT) and is the proposed site for the first phase of the RV park.

In March, Folk on the Rocks president Glen Abernathy said he was concerned about access to the festival site, something Lee said would be maintained.

It's still unclear as to whether a permit was needed to dump the glass, although transportation department commercial development officer Bill Gault said his department gave permission to dump the glass.

As well, Nalini Naidoo, manager of planning and lands for the city, said in an e-mail that the Workers' Compensation Board has said there are no safety concerns caused by the pile of glass.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem said due to the 2006 NWT Airports Act, which puts DOT land designated "airports" solely under government jurisdiction, the issue of permits was not clear.

"We're in an area of question here," said Van Tighem.

"Because it's on airport land it wouldn't affect the city (but) if it were on Folk on the Rocks land it would affect the city because we lease that to Folk on the Rocks society."