Yellowknife (Nov 03/06) - The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) is looking for a new base of operations in Yellowknife to house some of its employees.

The department put out a tender to build a wildlife laboratory and forest fire centre on Bretzlaff Drive.

In April, former Sir John Franklin high school students Jordan Balint and Thomsen D'hont helped wildlife biologist Tracy Hillis perform a necropsy, or animal autopsy, in an Environment and Natural Resources warehouse. The department says these procedures will become easier to do if it gets a new wildlife laboratory and forest fire centre in Yellowknife. - photo courtesy of Dean Cluff

The centre will give North Slave biologists and fire management crews a permanent place to work and store equipment.

"We'll finally be able to get to do some lab work we haven't been able to do before," said Lance Schmidt, the North Slave manager of forests for ENR.

"We'd like to move in sometime in August 2007."

The new facility would replace a bunkhouse for fire crews that was torn down last year.

The fire crews used a trailer in Old Town this year.

Dean Cluff, regional biologist for the North Slave, said the move will make his job easier.

"More samples come in all the time," he said. "It will be so much more efficient."

At the moment, the North Slave biologists have a small space at Taiga Labs, near Sir John Franklin high school, that Cluff describes as "a few counter tops."

There used to be a lab in downtown Yellowknife, he added, but it closed down in the 1990s.

Other ENR biologists from other regions will also have use of the new facility and equipment, which includes microscopes, stainless steel tables and fume hoods.

A new facility also means biologists will be able to give students in the area more access to learning workshops and presentations, said Cluff.

The deadline for companies interested in bidding on the tender is at 3 p.m., Nov. 6.