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Courthouse gets a face-lift

Renovations to improve conditions

Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (June 28/02) - The Yellowknife courthouse is undergoing a facelift and once completed, operations are expected to run a lot smoother.

Renovations on the second and third floors of the court house have been ongoing since the middle of May and are expected to be completed by the end of October.

The federal Department of Justice budgeted $1.2 million for the project. The project is necessary to improve working conditions at the court house and to help court proceedings run a little better.

Renovations are currently underway on the third floor. Director of court services Bruce McKay says Courtroom No. 3 is being slightly expanded and improved, two new interview rooms are being put in, and court registries will be moved from the second to the third floor in a larger space.

"We're particularly pleased that we are able to produce this larger interview room which can be used for a vulnerable witness or complainant, for example a child witness," said McKay.

As for the new location for court registries, McKay said the court reporters will be much more comfortable in the new location.

On the second floor, the jury room is being enlarged to improve conditions.

"We're trying to make the jury room more comfortable ... it's not uncommon for a jury to spend the better part of a day and the evening and maybe come back the next day," said McKay. Also on the second floor another interview room will be added next to the territorial courtroom and the judge's offices will be altered so they do not have to pass through another office to enter the Supreme courtroom.

The sheriff's office will remain on the second floor and the space previously used for the court reporters will become an additional judge's office for the Supreme Court.

Other minor changes are also in the works, such as improving the existing conference rooms and the Judge's library, just to name a few.

To clear space for the renovations, McKay said departments and employees were shifted around rather than re-located out of the building.

Ferguson, Simek, Clark were contracted to draft the new floor plans and Clark Builders is the main contractor for the construction work.

Contractors have been working at intervals during the daytime hours to ensure court proceedings are not interfered with.

Because of the renovations, the ongoing BHP trial is taking place on the second floor of the Panda II Centre.

McKay said the project has been going very well so far with just a few minor inconveniences.

"We're very excited to see everything completed," he said.