YELLOWKNIFE - The owner of the only permanent veterinary clinic in the NWT has decided he would rather renovate his existing facility in Yellowknife than shut it down.

"Renovating the current clinic not the best option, but it is an option," said Dr. Tom Pisz.

Dr. Tom Pisz hangs out with two of his horses at North Country stables on Monday. - Peter Crnogorac/NNSL photo

He added that to renovate the clinic he would have to buy the land it occupies in Kam Lake.

Last week, outside a city council meeting, Pisz's daughter Emilia Pisz said her father would leave town if he couldn't build a new clinic.

"If the city does not find us land to build a new clinic, then my dad will have to move his practice to Edmonton," she said.

Pisz said on Monday that he has no intention of leaving Yellowknife.

He said renovating his current clinic would be a last resort; one he would follow only if he's unable to build a new million-dollar facility on Commissioner's land bordering his home and stables near the airport.

Pisz owns and operates Great Slave Animal Hospital. He has leased the clinic's property on Kam Lake Road for 20 years.

"The building is falling apart," he said last week after the council meeting. "It's very small, and we just can't operate the way we've been doing there any more."

Pisz said that renovations to his current clinic would possibly cost more than building a new one, but he would follow this route in order to stay in Yellowknife.

Coun. Bob Brooks said the city is attempting to have a large parcel of Commissioner's land transferred to the city from the GNWT.

"We will keep in contact with them (the Piszs) and try to eventually work out something," he said, adding that the city can't make promises on land they don't yet control.

Coun. David Wind said that the problem the veterinary clinic is now facing is just another indication that the city must put pressure on the GNWT to release Commissioner's land.

Pisz said he hopes the city can buy or lease the land as soon as possible so he can have a new clinic built before his lease expires in July 2008.

"My main point is to have the GNWT speed up the process," said Pisz. "But if they say no, they say no, and we'll have to look at other options."