Yellowknife (June 06/03) - What's the point in owning your home if the land on which it sits is about to be pulled from underneath your feet?

Con trailer court resident Soren Thomassen says he's still waiting to hear from Miramar. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo

That's the dilemma residents of Con Place and Rycon trailer courts say they're facing today. They fear when their employers at nearby Con Mine close operations -- scheduled for early 2005 -- they'll be sent packing, without a job and with or without the homes many have lived in for decades.

"They all know the mine is supposed to shut down in 2005. I've been told that since I moved here 17 years ago but nobody took it seriously," says Lorna Skinner, whose husband works at the mine.

"But it was always in eight years, or 10 years but it was never this close -- a year and a half."

Rycon has been in existence for over 30 years. Con Place was built in 1987 to alleviate a city-wide housing crunch at the time so incoming mine workers wouldn't have to struggle to find a place to live.

Skinner -- who owns a trailer at Con Place -- says although the land on which their homes were built is on lease from the territorial government, they were told by the mine's former owner -- Nerco -- that it was likely they could purchase the land in about 10 years.

But current owner Miramar's abandonment and reclamation plan calls for the trailer courts to be cleared and residents will have to move their trailers elsewhere whether they can afford to do so or not.

After the reclamation work is complete, public access to the land "will be made available immediately," the report says.

Speaking out

Soren Thomassen, president of the Con Camp Trailer Association -- formed in 2000 with the intent to purchase the lots -- says they've been discussing the scheme privately with Miramar, the city and the GNWT for the last three years but many trailer owners are now at their wit's end.

Because the owners are all employees of Miramar -- only mine employees can live at the sites -- they've been reluctant to talk about it in public.

But with the mine closure and their potential eviction looming, Thomassen says they're growing increasingly frustrated with their employer's apparent lack of interest in helping them obtain the land.

"I was told that... if we piss them off it won't be helpful," says Thomassen.

"I did say our intention was not to piss anybody off. Our intention was to act in our interests. Our homes are here, we have to look after ourselves.

"If the mine doesn't want to sink a shaft here or use this piece of property for mining then we don't understand why we cannot be allowed to purchase this land."

Thomassen says the first time he broached the question to Miramar management about buying his lot back in 1998, he was told the company wanted to wait and see what a report conducted by the Yellowknife Arsenic Soil Remediation Committee had to say about arsenic levels in the area.

Company liability, he was told, might become an issue if Miramar were to sell the leases to the lots and an environmental or health hazard was later found on the property as a result of mining activity.

When the report was released in 2002, however, it concluded that while arsenic levels were high, they were comparable to any other Yellowknife neighbourhood.

Nonetheless, Miramar's mine manager says they're obligated to ensure the trailer courts are free of contamination before they can consider allowing the residents to stay.

"We're in the process of getting our A&R plan approved through the Mackenzie Valley Water Board, and until that plan's approved we will not be altering the plan as it is," says Stard.

"Once we find out what's happening with all the property in the approval stages we'll be looking at the different options."

He refused, however, to discuss what those options may be.

Arsenic no longer a concern

Brian Austin, director of lands administration for Municipal and Community Affairs, says the department is more open to the idea of Miramar transferring the lease to the city than they were before. And in turn, dole out individual lots to residents.

"We certainly had concerns prior to the results of the YASRC process about liability issues on the land and all that kind of stuff," says Austin.

"But I think the information we have right now seems to indicate that's not as big an issue as it might have been."

For its part, the city has also indicated that it's willing to help the residents stay as long as they're willing to pay to have sewer and water infrastructure -- currently supplied by the mine -- installed. They say they are.

Frame Lake MLA Charles Dent, whose constituents include those residing at the trailer courts, says he can't understand why the mine is balking, considering the green light MACA and the city have given them to stay.

"I don't understand why they wouldn't be prepared to try and move this process along," says Dent.