If the company can't find a way to set the trailer parks aside from its timetable to close the Con mine site, the city and the territorial government must be ready to go to court and get an injunction.
Surely it won't come to that, but the deadline is a reminder that negotiations on what is to be done with the land can't drag on indefinitely.
Miramar's lease agreement calls for it to clean up the mine site to industrial standards before it's handed back to the territorial government. The company has allocated $10 million for clean-up, but that may not be enough to do the job to everyone's satisfaction.
The city wants the land -- it plans to put as many as 1,600 homes there -- and is ready to take over services to the trailer parks, but not before it has assurances that the land will be cleaned to residential standards.
Mayor Gord Van Tighem argued at a public hearing into Miramar's remediation plan that its "logical" areas listed on the lease as suitable for residential purposes be cleaned to that standard. It is wishful thinking now, but would have been logical when the decision was being made on what standard was best for future use of the land.
The trailer park residents are caught in the middle, uncertain about whether they will be able to stay where many have lived for more than 15 years or be forced to move.
Debbie DeLancey, deputy minister of municipal affairs, pronounced herself "compassionate" on the issue, but as a regulator noted that "it was always quite clear that it was Con's intent to remove everything."
Does this mean the territorial government will watch as the bulldozers level the trailer parks? It would be absurdly comic, if it didn't involve the lives of 26 families.
The territorial government's washing of the hands is not new. The GNWT has consistently taken a non-committal approach to minimizing the damage done by industrial development. The regulations left room for a choice between residential standards and industrial standards.
The territorial government opted for the industrial because that was the easy way out.
The Yellowknives Dene and the City of Yellowknife will bear the consequences because the lower industrial standard may well rule out residential use. Good-bye hugely valuable real estate.
Meanwhile, the city has proposed that residents of Con Place and Rycon pay for the cleanup of their neighbourhood. The bill is estimated at $300,000, a little over $10,000 for each family.
That's a lot of money for workers who have been unable to find jobs since Con mine closed last November, but it may be the only way for them to keep their homes.
A good idea is like any good dance: there's no party until people step forward and start wigglin' their butts.
The proposed Yellowknife outdoor market is one of those good ideas, but it is suffering from not enough bodies doing the two-step.
"It's a lot more work than we anticipated," says Trent Frequet who, with Coun. Dave McCann, is hoping to get a weekend market going in the City Hall parking lot for this summer.
But no dancers have pushed off from being wallflowers.
Maybe McCann and Frequet are playing Gregorian chants when they should be strummin' classic country. We suggest they follow a tune we heard played down Hay River way: recruit a service club to put their personpower behind it. The Legion, the Elks, Kiwanis and many others: all have a solid group of like-minded members itching to do good civic works. Now there's an orchestra waiting for a gig!
Failing that, don't let big dreams get in the way of good ideas.
If the market has to start small -- fine. This is too good an idea to let waste away for another summer.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
It was almost painful to sit in the gallery during Rankin Inlet's regular council meeting earlier this month and watch new senior administrative officer John Hodgson try to get a motion passed to conduct a feasibility study on Rankin becoming a tax-based community.
If Hodgson was worried as to how the vote on the motion would go, he needn't have bothered.
Council wouldn't even make the motion, let alone vote on it.
Most disturbing about what unfolded in the council chambers was that the topic wasn't addressed by a group of elected municipal officials whose first duty is, supposedly, to look at what may be best for the community.
Although each had a plaque in front of them firmly establishing the fact they were hamlet councillors, the group spoke to the matter as a collective group of homeowners, nothing more.
You always have to give Coun. Justin Merritt credit for having the wherewithal to speak his mind in council and this time was no exception.
Merritt wasted no time in making it quite clear he wanted nothing to do with the concept.
He informed council he pays about $225 a year in property taxes to the Nunavut government, and both he and the government are happy with that. Case closed.
Just not listening
Hodgson was met with the same attitudes that Community Government Services ran into about a year ago, when it offered to pay for the feasibility study.
In fact, a number of councillors made the same fact-deprived statements this time around as they had a year ago.
Once again, the contention came from council that in a tax-based system, only private homeowners and the private business person pay.
Hodgson tried to set them straight on grants in lieu of taxes, just as Shawn Maley had tried the year previous, but to no avail.
A chance at independence
There is much, much more to becoming a tax-based community than a rate increase in property taxes.
Taxed-based municipalities have the ability to make their own decisions in capital planning and infrastructure projects, and are far less dependent on government handouts for their very survival.
Under the current system, there is precious little, if any, room for Rankin to grow as a community.
Sure, there's the chance a mine will go into operation and the company involved will put infrastructure money into the hamlet during its lifespan.
But that too can be filed under the dependency heading.
At least take a look
Other than the comforting caress of the GN's apron string, we don't understand why council is so scared of a feasibility study.
Council should have the study completed, analyzed by experts, broken down and fully explained.
Only then can it make an informed decision on whether the system is in Rankin's best interests.
Even if the answer is still no, at least council members would have taken the time to look over their own private fences at the rest of the community.
Simply maintaining the status quo can be a hard habit to break, but nobody has ever moved forward simply by treading water.
Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum
As word got out of the collapse of the foyer roof at Samuel Hearne secondary school, just prior to classes starting Wednesday morning, news of the event was soon scrolling across the bottom of the television screen on CNN's broadcast as well as CBC's 24-hour news network.
Though nobody was injured or killed in the falling debris, when the combination of the words 'school,' 'roof' and 'collapse' goes out on the wire, it attracts the media's attention.
On Thursday, reaction from students was mixed. Understandably, the younger ones were pleased with the unexpected holiday yet grimaced in horror at the possibility of an extended school year to make up for lost time. Also understandable.
On the other hand, senior students -- especially those hoping to graduate this year -- were very concerned that the event would hamper their efforts. However, quick action by the Beaufort Delta Education Council and SHSS staff got the Grade 12s back into class, using the shop buildings behind the school as temporary digs.
As for reaction from parents, words such as 'incompetence' were frequently uttered and several people thought that somebody should lose their job for neglecting the snow pile-up on the school roof to the point of its collapse. Again, a very understandable reaction.
However, what was mystifying is that few parents were willing to go on record with their completely warranted disgust for what could have been a tragedy.
"It's a small town and I don't want to rock the boat," was the general sentiment of those who'd rather keep their comments to themselves.
At this point, it is important to remember that this is not an issue of the school team not raising enough money at the bake sale to get to Super Soccer. It is an issue of lack of foresight on the part of officials charged with the maintenance of a public facility used by our community's children.
Fortunately, this apparent shortfall did not result in any injury or death.
Were this to have happened in any other community in the country, you can bet your bottom dollar that its Parent Teacher Organization would be screaming bloody murder for answers.
But, it seems, when this kind of thing happens here many are satisfied with blessing their lucky stars that nobody was hurt, filing a forensic report and, well, moving on.
In this situation, what has to be asked is if it was important enough for the Deputy Premier and Minister of Education Culture and Employment to visit the disaster site promptly and meet with local officials on the matter, isn't it equally important enough for parents to make known their dissatisfaction, as well?
Certainly this does not mean you have go on the record in the Drum. But why not write a letter to your MLA, ECE Ministry or the Department of Public Works?
Just a quick note to let them know that the collapse of your son or daughter's school roof is totally unacceptable.
Because the last thing Inuvik wants is to be headline news for a disaster that was preventable.
Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum
For anyone who was under the illusion that housing isn't a hot issue in Fort Simpson, that illusion was shattered earlier this week.
It's not uncommon for a community meeting to draw anywhere from nobody to 10 people. To have close to 30 residents show up to vent their concerns, as happened on Monday night, was quite a statement in itself.
There are numerous reasons why home owners and tenants are upset, and some of their concerns have inexplicably persisted for years.
In some cases policy is the problem. For example, the Housing Corporation sets clients' mortgage payments by household income. That could be applied fairly, but the way the policy is currently written if there are two teenagers in the home and they both work then the mortgage payment is going to climb. Even though Johnny and Susie aren't pulling in $65,000 a year, their combined minimum wage jobs are going to force Mom and Dad to have to fork over extra money every month. That's ludicrous. There are other such policies that need to be examined and amended.
On the other hand, sometimes clients' expectations are too lofty. Although mortgages are generally undesirable -- at the end of a 20 or 25 year mortgage most home owners will have paid twice the value of their home or more -- the Housing Corporation offers subsidies that can't be found elsewhere and it's more lenient on collections than any bank.
Better money management on the part of some clients is necessary.
When one person at Monday night's meeting complained of the complications arising from being in arrears to the Housing Corporation, Larry Campbell quickly pointed out that if he didn't make his mortgage payment his house would be repossessed. Touche!
Then there's the matter of proper construction by qualified carpenters. Standards, it seems, may have slipped a little on some occasions, and contractors aren't always held accountable. That has to change.
At the same time, home owners must be held responsible for routine maintenance and upkeep. While there's no substitute for quality construction, some problems that creep up are due to neglect over the years.
Another thing that became apparent during the meeting was a breakdown in communication.
There were quite a few members of the public who blamed Housing Corporation officials for misleading them, followed by denials from the Housing Corporation officials. In the absence of a polygraph or truth serum (neither of which is 100 per cent accurate anyway), we're never going to know for sure who said what.
The important thing is that the lines of communication be improved. A housing committee, proposed at Monday's meeting, would be one means of accomplishing that.
Housing Minister Michael McLeod needs to visit Fort Simpson soon.
Nobody in his right mind would want to trade places with McLeod at this point in time. The minister must come armed with answers, and the angry home owners and tenants ought to show up with some realistic suggestions or alternatives to existing problems.