Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jun 28/00) - Thunderous applause erupted from the gallery as one city councillor referred to court actions filed against houseboat owners as a mistake.

During Monday night's council meeting, the decision was made to drop legal actions and pay court-ordered costs to three local houseboaters the city filed lawsuits against four years ago.

The decision to withdraw the case comes as a result of a statement released by the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs stating the federal government, not the City of Yellowknife or the GNWT, has jurisdiction over Yellowknife Bay.

"I think what this motion really says is that the city made a mistake in starting this action. There's a problem out there and this was not the way to resolve it," said Coun. Kevin O'Reilly.

O'Reilly said a more practical solution would have been to negotiate a long-term agreement with houseboaters that would have them pay user fees for the city services they require and establish jurisdiction among both parties.

Coun. Ben McDonald defended the lawsuit, saying it was the only way the city was able to force a decision on who controlled the waters of Yellowknife Bay, something they had been unable to do after a decade of talks with federal and territorial governments.

"I wasn't on council at the time but I can imagine them saying 'Okay, if we can't get their attention some other way, then we'll do it ourselves,'" said McDonald.

Despite supporting the decision to drop the case, McDonald said he believes the city could have won jurisdiction in court.

"... From the stuff that I've read we could quite reasonably expect to have jurisdiction given to us by the courts despite the fact that the GNWT says we don't have it."

Housboater relieved

The decision to drop the case has come as a relief to the houseboaters.

"It's been a long haul carrying a municipal corporation down the road and I'm glad to see we're getting near the end zone," said Matthew Grogono, one of three houseboaters who were being sued by the city.

Grogono, who estimates to have spent 1,000 hours and more than $60,000 on the case, called the lawsuit an "injustice of democracy.

"Asking an individual citizen to carry the burden of cost of a constitutional challenge, I think, is an inappropriate request," said Grogono.

He said he will never agree to pay "illegal" property taxes, but would consider some kind of user fee, as was being discussed prior to the lawsuit being launched.

"That offer was rejected and never brought up again, to my knowledge, and instead the city took the houseboaters by storm in the courts and in the taxation system," said Grogono.

Mayor Dave Lovell said he did not recall discussions about collecting user fees, but said negotiations of that sort would be useless.

"It's no good unless you have the authority to back it up," said Lovell.