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The City of Yellowknife passed a bylaw Monday, securing funding for much-needed upgrades to water and sewer infrastructure in Northland Trailer Park. - NNSL file photo

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
After years of bursting pipes and constant worry, residents of Northland Trailer Park can rest a little easier now that funding has been officially approved by the City of Yellowknife to fix the trailer park's weakening water and sewer lines.

"It's been a long time coming, we've put a lot of work into it and I'm pretty excited to have this mostly off my plate now," said Wade Friesen, a member of the infrastructure committee for Yellowknife Condominium Corporation No. 8, the condo board that governs Northland. Friesen has personally been working on dealing with the infrastructure problem since about 2003, he said, and he was not the first.

On Monday, city council unanimously passed the third and final reading of a bylaw that will give Northland access to funds that will be used by the city to finally replace water and sewage lines in the neighbourhood. These lines have needed to be replaced for more than 15 years and have ruptured multiple times during the past few winters.

According to the bylaw, the city is now authorized to borrow up to $15,767,679 to finance 100 per cent of the Yk Condo Corporation No. 8's local improvement project. This loan will then be paid back by Northland residents over no more than 25 years, at no more than $358 per month per unit. There are 258 units within the trailer park. The bylaw also states that residents will not have to pay more than a five-per-cent interest rate on the loan.

"We're all very pleased that we've reached this point," said deputy mayor Mark Heyck. "The last legislative step to seeing the work start has been completed."

The city has not finalized where they will borrow the funds from yet, said Heyck, but will shop around financial institutions and lenders to find the best rates possible on behalf of residents.

The new monthly fee for Northland residents will come in the form of a local improvement tax, which will replace the current condo fees, said Friesen. By taking advantage of current low interest rates and other cost-saving measures, he estimated residents could pay as little as $250 to $300 per month, which is not significantly more than the current condo fees.

Friesen said he hopes the plan to improve infrastructure in the trailer park will persuade the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) to restart insuring mortgages on trailers within the park.

"The big anticipation now is CMHC, wondering when they'll be back on board," said Friesen. "There are 258 homes and we haven't had a sale in here in over two years."

In 2008, the CMHC stopped insuring mortgages in Northland because of the water and sewer issues. At the time, it stated that a remediation plan needed to be in place and there needed to be proof that the condo corporation could afford to implement that plan before the CMHC would consider reinsuring mortgages in the area, said Friesen.

Heyck agreed that one of the major problems residents have been facing is the inability to sell their homes. City administration will be sitting down with representatives from the national housing agency to determine when this problem can be fixed, said Heyck. CMHC officials will be meeting with banks in the near future to analyze the city's borrowing bylaw and determine how to proceed, he said.

However, Northland residents are not completely out of the woods yet. Repairs are unlikely to begin until next summer, and city funding will not cover any emergency repairs that are necessary this coming winter.

"I don't think it's going to be an issue - it's only one more winter," said Friesen. "We've managed every other winter previously. Some winters have been more costly than others, but we've still made it through."

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