SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Residents of Northland Trailer Park are pleading for help from the city after an underground sewer line failed earlier this month.

Wade Friesen, vice president of Yk Condominium Corporation No. 8, stands beside an above-ground, temporary sewer line that had to be put in place in Northland Trailer Park when a section of underground sewer line collapsed – the trailer park's infrastructure is 15 years older than its projected life expectancy, and is falling apart. - Tim Edwards/NNSL photo

A 300-foot above-ground sewer line had to be installed as an emergency measure after a section of the underground sewer line failed - a sewer line which is part of a sewer and water system that's 15 years past its expiry date.

"A section of sewer line in behind a few units on Norseman (Drive) has, we believe, collapsed," said Wade Friesen, vice president of Yk Condominium Corporation No. 8.

"We can't get a camera down there to get a look at the line because its full of sewage."

Friesen said the above-ground sewer line is a temporary measure until the summer comes. Oil tanks would have to be moved in order to dig up the line, and that would leave some residents without heat in the cold months of winter if the line were to be replaced now.

The whole underground infrastructure of the trailer park needs to be replaced soon, but it is owned by the condominium corporation itself, not by the city, and the corporation does not have the estimated $18 million needed to pay for the project.

Friesen has been asking for help from the city to find funding for this project, and the city will be discussing it soon.

"We're just the little people, we cant do this without municipal backing," said Friesen.

City councillor Bob Brooks put forward a notice of a motion at the Feb. 22 city council meeting, proposing the city help bring Northland's infrastructure up to city standards.

The motion proposes the city seek funding to pay for the upgrades and possibly pay for some of the work itself, and assume responsibility for the infrastructure after it is replaced.

Northland Trailer Park "is experiencing severe road, water, sewage failure on a regular basis," Brooks said at the meeting. "The infrastructure is in dire need of immediate replacement."

Brooks said he believes council will support the motion. After conducting studies and meetings with the corporation, he said, the city now knows exactly what needs to be replaced - the only problem is figuring out how to pay for it.

"We're trying to partner with them or work with them so they can basically try and find as many funding sources as possible," Brooks told Yellowknifer on Feb. 24.

There is possible funding available from the federal and territorial governments, as well as the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, which Brooks hopes will put a nice dent in the approximately $18 million price tag.

"If we can cut that in half, we can then take whatever is left over and spread (the payments) over a longer term to make sure it's some thing affordable to Northland residents," said Brooks.

Brooks said if residents had to pay for the upgrades with no help, they would be paying $500 a month over 15 years. "I've heard from a number of people they simply could not afford that and would have to walk away from their units," he said.

The councillor said Yellowknife's current one-per cent vacancy rate means that, even if some Northland residents were to move into apartments, there simply wouldn't be enough housing for all of them.

"You would expect to see a lot of bankruptcies filed," said Brooks. "There would certainly be a number that would be left homeless."