Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 18/02) - A quick way to avoiding the Yellowknife housing crunch might be to get a job with the federal government.

The Department of Public Works and Government Services Canada owns 291 residential units that can be used by employees of the 14 departments and agencies represented in the North. In Yellowknife, that means the feds own 231 units and lease an additional 60 for their employees.

Currently, 34 of those are vacant.

"Public works is responsible for ensuring that there are accommodations for the departments," said spokeswoman Rachel Labelle.

"What we have is what we need or anticipate what we need," said Labelle. "A lot of things are really hard to predict because of all kinds of emergency or staffing situations that might arise."

Of the 34 vacancies, six are kept deliberately vacant in case of emergency, such as a house fire. The rest are awaiting tenants -- kept open for new hires or part-time workers in training. In the past year, occupancy rates for the 291 units have ranged between 89 and 92 per cent.

DPW has about 430 units in the North, of which 348 are occupied by federal employees. In many communities, units unoccupied by federal employees are rented to other levels of government or to private citizens. That policy is not used in Yellowknife.

Labelle said it was too early to speculate whether more housing would be needed when the new federal building is completed at the old Canadian Tire site.