Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jun 30/00) - The city may not have to seek ratepayer approval to buy out the Niven Lake subdivision partners, but the nod from the territorial minister comes with two conditions.

"I will not consider additional requests to refinance this loan if estimated sale proceeds are not realized to service the debt payments," Municipal and Community Affairs Minister Jim Antoine wrote in a letter addressed to Mayor Dave Lovell.

"And I will not consider any additional exemption requests to finance additional costs associated with the Niven Lake subdivision."

Those terms contained in the minister's letter came as a surprise to city officials, according to Tim Mercer, director of corporate services.

"We were happy that they gave us the approval but we were surprised at the minister's comments that he would not approve any future ratepayer exemptions for future developments up there (in the Niven Lake subdivision)," he said, adding the mayor forwarded a letter of concern to the minister last week as a result of his comments.

Mercer said Antoine's position contradicts the GNWT's Land Administration Act, which states the territorial government will provide financial assistance to municipalities that wish to develop land.

"We're a growing city and we've got absolutely no land here left for residential development and the minister is saying that he is not going to exempt any future borrowings from ratepayer approval. It puts us in a very difficult position.

"Our response to that is it causes us great concern, especially since the government has committed through its policies to make resources available to us to develop land," said Mercer.

And in this case, he said, the city is not asking for funding from the GNWT, but simply for the authority to borrow the money themselves.

If Antoine holds his ground, Mercer said Yellowknife could possibly be the only city in Canada required to obtain ratepayer approval before borrowing money for land development.