Yellowknife (Sep 05/03) - Residents of Con and Rycon trailer courts urged city council Tuesday to take up their fight to keep their homes where they are.

Soren Thomassen and his family are among 30 others who has been given a three-month layoff notice from Con mine, which holds the lease to the trailer courts.

As it stands, the only guarantee the mine has given them to this point, is that they will have six months to move their trailers after Nov. 29. After that, water and sewer service from the mine will be cut off.

"They're really putting the squeeze on us," Thomassen told a councillors at a city committee meeting Sept. 2.

"Our kids are going to school here and it's going to be difficult for us without a job to talk to the bank about buying property.

"We don't want to give them (Miramar) the opportunity to say this hasn't been pursued in a timely fashion. We would hope city council will help us get on with this."

Thomassen is the president of the Con Camp Trailer Association, formed in 2000. They want confirmation from council that when the mine gives up its lease, the city will make the land available to the residents at fair market value.

Because their mobile homes are on company property, they could be forced to move off the land they have called home for many years.

"Right now, Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) hold the lease for the Con mine," said Thomassen. "Miramar Con mine would have to agree to separate a portion of that lease and give it back to MACA.

"Then the city (because the land is within city limits) would be given the opportunity to pick up that piece of the lease."

Thomassen said the only way the families will be able to keep their neighbourhood intact is if the city intends to maintain the area as a mobile home park after the mine closes.

But getting to that status may be easier said than done.

Many hurdles to jump through

Charles Dent, MLA for Frame Lake, said the process by which the land must be transferred back to the territorial government from the mine must also include consultation with aboriginal governments and subsequent facilitation of the transfer to the city, should it want the land.

"There is also going to have to be some discussion of liability. But from what I've seen of the arsenic testing, the levels of arsenic in the trailer park area are no higher than on Forrest Drive," Dent said.

Once the mine agrees to sever the lease and the city agrees to take over the land, he said the territorial government will "work expeditiously" to ensure the process is finalized.

It is at that point the city and residents will have to discuss how water and sewer services will be provided.

Brian Austin, director of lands administration at Municipal and Community Affairs, said his department will only become involved after the mine agrees to release the land and the city indicates an interest in it.

He said he understands that it's a time-sensitive issue. However, there are still several steps which must happen before the transfer is complete.

This would include soil testing, partly because of the proximity of the park to the mine.

"I'm reluctant to put a time frame on the issue. But everyone has compassion for the situation and finding a solution," Austin said.

Brian Labadie, senior vice president of operations at Miramar, said the company is willing to be flexible.

"We don't own the land. We will not be able to support the facilities after June," Labadie says of the sewer and water lines.

While he says the mine will facilitate consultations and give what support they can to residents, ultimately any decision to leave the trailer courts alone will be up to the territorial government, aboriginal groups and the city.

Mayor Gordon Van Tighem said the main consideration for the city is deciding its long-term plans.

"The decision is if the city wants to retain the area as a trailer park development," Van Tighem said.

He said the residents' suggestion that the city should provide trucked water and sewer service after the mine closes, while costing less initially, would ultimately end up costing the residents more to maintain.

Should the residents have to move, he said it would be a matter of determining what areas are zoned for trailer park usage and then relocate.

But for Thomassen, moving from his long-time "vibrant community" is not a voluntary option.

"I will be the person in his lawn chair sitting in front of the trailer waiting for the truck to come and move it if that's what they want to do."