Each of the three options presented in the report, cautiously labelled "(Draft) Policy Document, The Woodyard, An Examination of Options," suggests demolition of the 12 shacks that still stand in the two-hectare area on the shore of Yellowknife Bay.

"They alternative is how do you want it demolished," said Stephen Fancott of the Old Stope Association. "I don't find that a real range of alternatives."

"Nothing is carved in stone," said the city's senior planner, Monte Christensen, of the 15-page report.

Christensen said he plans to meet with interested groups individually before a public meeting tentatively scheduled for Aug. 14. More public meetings may be held if deemed necessary, he added.

City hall's view of the shacks is summarized in one of four assumptions upon which the report is based:

"Present conditions in the Woodyard are not acceptable, do not meet generally accepted standards of health and safety and action to improve these conditions is necessary," it notes.

Christensen said that under present conditions the city is vulnerable to legal action in the case of injury.

"If somebody lost their life down there, I think his family or estate could come back and say 'How come you didn't do something to change the conditions?' and file a statement of claim against the city."

But Fancott, an architect, said that argument doesn't hold water.

"By that argument, are they saying that every building that doesn't come up to the present building code is a liability problem for the city?" said Fancott.

He estimated more than half the buildings in the city come up short, because the code is intended to apply only to buildings when they are being constructed.

There is no requirement that buildings constructed before the most recent code, published in 1995, comply with it, said Fancott.