Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (May 24/02) - The Ingraham Trail is a slice of natural life for the hundreds of people that call the winding trail home. Right? Wrong.

Technically speaking, there are no more than two dozen permanent households on the Ingraham Trail. According to the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, residents are paying property taxes on 327 lots on the trail. All but 22 of those lots are leased from the federal or territorial government.

The territorial portion of the trail extends from the city's eastern border to the Prosperous Lake boat launch. Lands from the boat launch to the Tibbitt Lake terminus of the trail are administered by the federal government.

All leases contain a clause specifying that the property is only to be used for "seasonal recreational" purposes.

"There's no such thing as residential out there," said federal lands administrator Brenda Becker. "It's all seasonal recreational." But the leases never defined what "seasonal recreational" meant.

"Thirty years ago (when the leases were drawn up) we probably thought it was self-explanatory," Becker said.

Area MLA Joe Handley lives full-time on a lot leased from the federal government. Handley said he approached the federal government when he was considering buying his Prelude Lake home and was told that the seasonal recreational designation did not preclude living there full-time.

"I live there in the summer, winter, fall and spring," Handley said. "They're all seasons."

Territorial lands administrator Brian Austin said that as far as he is aware, all people leasing territorial property on the Trail are living there seasonally.

"I've heard stories (of people living full-time on leased lots)," he said. "We've followed up on them from time to time when we've heard of them, but none of them have proven true. They've all proven to have other addresses."

The recent review of Statistics Canada census figures by the territorial government has thrown in another wrinkle.

The NWT Bureau of Statistics now estimates there are 173 people living full-time on the trail. That averages out to eight people per household.