Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 22/02) - Some of the city's residents are angry about one of the consequences of a resource-driven economy: truck traffic in the city.

Legions of trucks descend upon Yellowknife every year, rumbling over city roads and parking inside the city's boundaries.

Trucks idle by the Super 8 Motel. Two weeks ago, a municipal enforcement officer entered one of the trucks and turned it off after receiving a noise complaint. - Nathan VanderKlippe/NNSL photo

Most are in transit to or from the ice road, and many spend a night in Yellowknife. Drivers for the bigger firms, like Mullen Transport and RTL Enterprises, usually park on company land.

But independent drivers and drivers who work for smaller companies don't have that luxury. Many of them park in town: on city streets or in hotel parking lots.

In particular, about a dozen or so park at the Super 8 Motel every night, and neighbourhood residents have complained about the noise and the smell.

Two weeks ago, the city's municipal enforcement division took a complaint that the noise of the trucks idling was making sleep difficult.

One of the officers who responded told the hotel that city bylaws make it illegal to leave vehicles running and unattended. The officer issued a handful of tickets, then entered one of the trucks, turned it off and locked and closed the door.

"The officer tried to locate the driver, and the information he received was that the driver was at the Monkey Tree," said municipal enforcement manager Doug Gillard. "So we made the decision, to prevent anyone from stealing the truck, to turn it off."

With the weather below -30 C, truck drivers often leave their vehicles running to prevent them from freezing up.

When the driver discovered that his vehicle had been entered and locked, he left the hotel. The following night, hotel managers said no drivers spent the night. Trucks usually comprise about a quarter of the hotel's business.

"You don't do that (enter a vehicle)," said Super 8 manager Chris Johnston. "Some of these guys' vehicles are $150,000 to $200,000 in cost and it's their homes. If someone was to come into my house unexpectedly, I'd probably shoot him."

Since then, the hotel and the city have worked out a compromise. Super 8 will tell truckers to park on the Old Airport Road side of the hotel, which will hopefully block out some of the engine noise.

Parking always a problem

David and Shirley LeGros live on Butler Road, directly across from the Super 8. David battled with the city for a year and a half, trying to make Butler a no-parking zone. This January, the no parking sign finally went up and trucks no longer park in front of his house.

But he is still concerned.

"If you don't work for RTL, there's nowhere for you to park your vehicle," he said. "Someone has to give them somewhere to go."

He wants the city build a truck route to allow vehicles to bypass Old Airport Road to get to the Kam Lake industrial district.

That idea was brought up in 1999, and the city did a pre-feasibility study, which found that building the road would cost about $2.5 million.

Although the proposal hasn't gone far since, Mayor Gord Van Tighem called it an "excellent idea, and eventually we will be able to."

He said a truck access route could be included in the planned airport expansion, or could perhaps be financed by the territorial Department of Transportation.

"It's definitely something that has been sitting on the edge of the back burner, sort of nudging toward the front burner for several years," Van Tighem said.

Another idea that has drawn some consideration in the past is a truck stop. But, said Van Tighem, while the city can provide the land, it's up to a private developer to build the facility. So far, none has come forward.

Despite some of the problems, LeGros was careful not to point fingers at the truckers. "I don't think the issues are the truckers themselves as much as it is just organization," he said.