Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services

Fort Smith (Feb 18/02) - The government is stepping in to resolve a long-standing $1.5-million environmental liability that will free land for seniors' housing.

New seniors' apartments are slated for Fort Smith, but the town and its seniors disagreed on where they should be built.

Several town councillors went against wishes of seniors who wanted them built downtown.

Until the territorial government recently agreed to bail out Uncle Gabe's Friendship Centre, the other option for seniors was a more distant residential area.

The government has since agreed to buy an abandoned Catholic-run downtown hospital, which the friendship centre bought from the church years ago. It must be demolished, with a price tag of $1.5 million because it contains asbestos and PCBs.

The hospital includes land behind it that would be suitable for the seniors' apartments.

The freed-up vacant lot is "ideal," says MLA Michael Miltenberger. The land is beside a nursing home and a lower-level seniors' complex.

This spring the NWT Housing Corporation wants to build four units.