Jennifer Geens
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 28/05) - Visitors to the city may be forgiven if they're confused by our heritage walking tours.

Wayne Bryant, a member of the Yellowknife Heritage Committee, said the booklets need updating regularly.

Yellowknife's eight heritage sites ( year of designation in brackets): Wildcat Cafe (1992) Fireweed Studio (1996) Old log schoolhouse (1998) Back Bay Cemetery (1996) Bank of Toronto (1999) Hudson's Bay Warehouse (1993) Canadian Pacific float base (1992) old Weaver and Devore building (Bullock's Bistro) (1992)

"We have tourists that go along to see the buildings and they're not there," he said.

For example, the Old Town brochure, which was updated earlier this year, directs visitors along Bretzlaff Drive to Slant 6 and the Old Laundry, both of which were torn down in late August.

Buildings still on the New Town heritage walking tour, but missing from reality, include the Gerry Murphy Arena and the Joliffe Island House. The tour also notes another building, Akaitcho Hall, whose days are numbered.

The reality is that even the eight officially designated historic sites could easily be demolished.

"What a lot of people don't understand is that a bylaw designation doesn't protect it," said city councillor Mark Heyck.

Heyck, who is also a member of the heritage committee, said the Heritage Bylaw offers a small incentive to site owners by allowing them to improve a designated heritage building without increasing their property tax.

Often Yellowknife's oldest buildings fall into disrepair, becoming neighbourhood eyesores. Restoration can be prohibitively expensive.

In the Yukon, property owners can apply for grants of up to 50 per cent of the cost of renovations to heritage properties, regardless of whether they have been officially recognized.

Bruce Barrett, Yukon's historic sites project officer, said the program has helped fund nearly 200 projects since 1987. The program has a budget of $75,000 per year.

To qualify, a property owner needs documentation of the site's historic significance. There are two catches: the owners have to maintain reasonable public access and if they sell the property within three years, they have to pay the money back.

Barrett said the Yukon government considers it money well spent.

"It's a grassroots thing," he said. "It encourages people to maintain an interest in the preservation of their buildings and I think it's made a big difference over the years."

Heyck wasn't aware of the Yukon program but said starting something similar in the NWT "would be really, really good."

The NWT recently developed its own site designation policy in response to the establishment of a national historic site registry.

Yellowknife hasn't designated any historic sites since 1999.

Heyck said the committee's focus for the past few years has been on rescuing remnants of Con and Giant Mine. Two of the committee's priorities for this year were hiring a consultant to review the heritage designation policy, and developing a heritage map.

The new designation policy will set out categories, such as mining, into which sites can be slotted.

This will help the committee identify missing pieces.

"We need a clear set of criteria because it's impossible to protect everything," he said.

Heyck said the heritage map will direct people to areas of historical interest, and not just individual buildings, partly because of their tendency to vanish.

It's just as important to find a use for the buildings that get saved, he said.

Mel Pardy, assistant superintendent for YK1, considers the old log schoolhouse in front of his office to be a "missed opportunity."

Mildred Hall taught in the building, which was the first school in the NWT. It was moved to the site in 1987, and designated in 1998. But since then it has remained empty and padlocked. A chain link fence protects it from vandalism. Occasionally classes take a peek inside but Pardy said it's under-used.

"It would be nice if we could get some old desks and an old stove and have some classes in there, to show the kids what it was like," he said.