Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Feb 15/02) - Who should pay to clean the streets and maintain sewers in Yellowknife's former Northland trailer park?

That is a question being debated by the city of Yellowknife and the 1,000 residents of what is formally known as Yellowknife Condo Corp. No. 8.

The streets in the trailer park are owned and operated by the condominium corporation. Each household pays $960 a year to clear snow and keep their water and sewer running.

Yet they pay the same property tax as anyone else in the city -- including other condo residents -- even though none of those dollars come back into maintaining their streets and sewers.

To the residents, that means they are paying taxes for road maintenance, without seeing a dime of that money coming back into their neighbourhood.

To the city, the situation makes perfect sense. The streets and sewer pipes of the trailer park are private property, owned and operated by the condominium corporation.

In the same way that the public works department would not pave or snowblow a driveway on Forrest Drive -- or repair an elevator in Northern Heights -- it does not touch Norseman Drive or any of the other streets in Northland.

Last fall, city council voted against giving the trailer park's residents a break on taxes. It also denied a request to begin snow removal and other municipal functions on the condominium's streets.

Meeting planned

On Jan. 21 the condo corporation, which owns the land the 259 trailers sit on, sent a letter to city senior administrator Max Hall. Signed by general manager James Clark, the letter says "we find this treatment unfair and we feel compensation would rectify the past and cure the future."

The letter also lists 23 "services of concern" that the condominium wants the city to provide. The letter provoked a closed-door committee discussion on Monday, where councillors decided to continue negotiations. City staff and condominium administration are meeting today on the matter.

Hopes of a quick resolution are not high.

"We're pretty far apart so it's a big leap to bring us together in our thinking," said condominium secretary-treasurer Renee Jones.

And Coun. Dave McCann, who has spoken with condominium personnel, indicated that the city intends to hold firm in its position.

"There is very much a desire on the part of the city to resolve this," he said.

"At the same time, we still have to have our principles of dealing in an even-handed fashion with all condominiums. We can't start creating a different rule book, and that will be the challenge: to work that out."

For the condo corporation's part, "our view is that we're paying the same rate of taxes as everyone else in the city but we're not receiving the same services for that rate," said Jones.

To at least one trailer park resident, that leaves one response.

"Sucks to be us," said Leona Callahan.