Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Feb 22/02) - The general manager of Northlands trailer park has all but rejected an offer made by the city.

City administration offered to study the cost of replacing the park's decrepit water and sewer situation, and proposed helping the condo corporation with a local improvement.

The offers were made in a Monday meeting.

James Clark, the condo GM, said "it wasn't the best meeting in the world." He called the administrative offer of a local improvement "one of those old administrative ploys. They say, 'would you sooner I stab you in the back once or three times? Oh, just once? OK.'"

City staff sang a brighter tune.

"It went fairly well," said acting senior administrative officer Tim Mercer. "We had a good discussion and we explained to them what council's position was on the matter."

City council has decided not to change the taxes paid by condo residents, nor will it take over the failing sewer system before it has been repaired. Those repairs are expected to cost as much as $5 million.

Money in reserve

The condominium has $130,328 in its reserve fund for major repairs.

The water and sewer system was originally installed in the late 1960s and early 1970s by Northland Mobile Homes. The trailer park became a condominium in 1990. The current underground pipes are still the original system, and the city is charging the trailer park for hundreds of thousands of litres of wasted water per month.

A local improvement to repair the system would need to be passed by 60 per cent of the property owners representing 50 per cent of the land's assessed value.

The condo corporation is arguing that residents pay full taxes, but do not receive full services. Maintenance of streets, water and sewer in the trailer park is done by a private contractor paid for by $80-a-month condo fees. They paid $65 a month until January when the fee was raised.

"When they turn to us and tell us they're treating us the same way as anyone else, I can't see it," said Clark.

The city is saying that once the pipes are replaced, it will take over the system for free and begin maintenance of the area. That would mean that condo fees would tumble, since private maintenance would be rendered unnecessary. However, residents would be burdened with the cost of repaying the system for quite a number of years.

"They're telling us they're going to lend us the money to put in a new water and sewer system that we can then give them? How is that doing us a favour?" questioned the corporation's secretary-treasurer Renee Jones.

Where all this leads to is still up for speculation. Mercer made it clear that council was "firm" in its decision, and would probably not resume debate on the matter.

Even without further recourse to council, the condo corporation is promising not to let the issue die. In the past, the trailer park has debated legal action or public protests.

Mercer would not comment on the city's legal position in the matter.

For Clark, it is a matter of simple justice. "How can anyone sit there and say, 'We're being fair with you people. We're charging you full taxes but you have to maintain your own roads, own water and sewer, own playground,'" he said.

"We're not going to just stop and say we're not going to do anything," he said.