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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Human feces are piling up at rest-stops alongside NWT highways while the territorial government bickers over which department is responsible for cleaning it up.

Earl Blacklock, manager of public affairs for the Department of Transportation (DOT), told Yellowknifer the responsibility lies with the Department of Industry, Tourism, and Investment (ITI).

Human feces – complete with toilet paper – lies on the ground outside the first rest-stop on the side of Highway 3 leaving Yellowknife, on Sunday afternoon. - Tim Edwards/NNSL photo

But Richard Zieba, director of tourism and parks with ITI, said that's incorrect even though his department has been cleaning up the rest-stops, which have no plumbing or heating, during summer months.

"Maintenance of those facilities is not our responsibility," said Zieba, but added, "It is a GNWT responsibility and we're trying to work out an agreement between (DOT) and ourselves. Most of those facilities are (DOT), they are not wayside parks. They are pull-outs provided by the Department of Transportation," said Zeiba.

He said the main issue for his department is that their staff and park maintenance is seasonal, running from May 15 through to September 15, and ITI doesn't have the staff or budget to extend that.

During the winter the department isn't maintaining the rest-stops, and no one else is either.

The distance between rest-stops can be pretty vast. The first washroom facility leaving Yellowknife on Highway 3 near Behchoko, about 90 km away.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem noticed the problem on a recent highway trip.

"There's great interest in public washrooms within the city and I thought it was interesting that when you go outside the city, there were even less (washrooms), and the ones that were there you couldn't get to because the snow was piled so deeply," said Van Tighem,

Blair Weatherby, president of the NWT Motor Transport Association, said the lack of washrooms is a fact of life for truckers – and they've adapted.

"Just take your own toilet paper and stop wherever you got to," said Weatherby. "Hopefully you can make it to a warm bathroom, but you know, you got three and a half-hour stretches," Weatherby said.

Richard Zieba said problems with vandalism at the rest-stops are costly and disgusting problems, especially in the winter.

"It's a sad fact, but we will get people actually deliberately not using the bathrooms the way they should," said Zieba.

"They will actually be defecating throughout the entire building. Of course, in -45 that raises some severe maintenance issues. How do you deal with frozen waste? It requires steam cleaning – it's a fairly costly maintenance issue."

Zieba said ITI and DOT are talking solutions in talks right now, though, between ITI and DOT.

"We have committed to working with (DOT) on providing rest-stops in possibly a range of every 80 kilometres along all the highways," Zieba said.

As well, Zieba said that ITI's intentions are that these, as well as the rest-stops and washrooms currently available, will be maintained year-round.

Until then, Blair Weatherby put it best: "The whole highway's a washroom."