by Anne-Marie Jennings
Northern News Services

NNSL (Apr 08/98) - The chairman of the Native Communications Society says the move to a new building will be good for the society.

"We think it's the best place for us," J.C. Catholique said. "There's enough room for both our radio and television studios. In three years, it will be all ours."

After more than a month of looking for a new home, NCS has found a 2,100-square-foot house on 46th Street that fits the bill. It even comes with a garage.

Since its eviction from its offices in the Media Building on 49th Street, executive director Barry Zellen and the board of directors have been looking for a new location.

Catholique added that NCS turned to the services of real estate agent to find a new home for its operations.

"There were slim pickings," Catholique said.

During its search, NCS was forced to pre-empt its original programming on radio station CKLB for a two-week period before temporary offices could be found. For three weeks, the offices of CKLB were located in empty office space owned by Pido Productions.

While NCS will be paying off a mortgage on the new building for the next three years, Catholique said there has been no change in the board's intention to investigate the possibility of moving the society to a location outside of Yellowknife in the near future.

He also said that the possibility exists for expansion of office space and the establishment of regional offices.

"We could still move and have the building in Yellowknife also," he said. Catholique added that the savings in rent NCS will see as a result of the move to the new location could be put into new ventures down the road.

"We're going to take advantage of the situation we now find ourselves in," he said.

In addition to operating CKLB, NCS also has television production studios for original programming.