Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 24/05) - MLAs are demanding details about a $200 million government proposal to convert 1,400 pipeline construction camp trailers into much-needed housing for NWT communities.

"(The government) has never shown us they can do a project this big," said Range Lake MLA Sandy Lee, one of a number of regular MLAs who peppered Housing Minister David Krutko with questions. "It just sounds crazy."

Krutko said the plan - which is contingent on the Mackenzie Valley pipeline getting the go-ahead from regulatory officials - would alleviate housing shortages.

Krutko said the territorial government is working on a deal that would see the NWT spend about $120 million on the trailers, with another $90 million coming from the federally-operated Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation.

The companies behind the pipeline would use the trailers as dormitories during the $7-billion construction phase of the project, which would carry natural gas from the Beaufort Delta into northern Alberta.

Once the pipeline is finished, the trailers would be shipped hundreds of kilometres from the Mackenzie Valley to communities across the territories.

"We have to wake up to the reality that we have a housing crisis in the Northwest Territories," Krutko said in the legislative assembly. The government has to find "unique" ways to solve the problem, he said.

While Lee agreed there was a critical housing shortage, she said many residents do not want to live in trailers.

"I have had people from Tuktoyaktuk and Paulatuk telling me 'We don't want any trailers in my home town,'" she said. "'We don't want 1,400 trailers that nobody wants to live in.'"

In Lutsek K'e, two of four government-owned mobile homes are empty, and hamlet senior administrative officer Ray Griffith said most residents will not pay $1,300 - plus utilities - for the trailers.

"No one is interested in them," Griffith said. "(As) market housing, these have not worked out."

Lee also doubted whether the government could handle the "massive" logistical feat of moving the trailers from construction camps to the communities.

Krutko said the trailers can be moved down the Mackenzie River by barge or along winter roads. "We do it every year. It's no different than what we are doing today."

The territories are short 2,600 units and that number could rise to 4,000 in the next decade, Krutko said. Without this plan, there would be no way for the government to meet the demand, Krutko said.

"This opportunity comes along once in a lifetime."

Krutko said he will meet with federal officials in November to discuss the plan. He will also sit down with the oil conglomerates and ATCO, the company that would build the trailers.

"We are trying to meet the timelines we are looking at," said Krutko.

"Hopefully we will have an agreement shortly so we can see this project come to fruition."

Not all MLAs oppose the idea. Hay River MLA Jane Groenewegen said Thursday she toured the Calgary-based plant where the trailers would be built and she called their design "brilliant."

The companies behind the pipeline - a group headed by Imperial Oil - are now seeking regulatory approval for the project and public hearings are tentatively scheduled for later this year.

Construction is not expected to finish before 2010.