Jason Unrau
Northern News Services
Friday, May 04, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The future direction on where to relocate the NWT and Nunavut Workers' Compensation Board headquarters will be determined at the board's governance council meeting in June, according to council chair Denny Rodgers.

"We've outgrown where we currently are," said Rodgers.

Two previous attempts to relocate from the Centre Square office tower were quashed by city council.

The first was a joint courthouse/WCB office proposed for the old Gerry Murphy Arena site; the other a re-zoning application on Old Airport Road. where the new Staples box-store is to be built.

Back in 2005 while the WCB was still trying to obtain the Old Airport Road. property, the board was panned for purchasing two floors at the Centre Square tower, which Rodgers defended on economic grounds.

"It made financial sense to do it," he said, adding that any plans to build another facility will require the same. "There are no immediate plans to build because first of all, we don't have any land."

Rodgers said the WCB agreed to finance $18 million of the $40 million courthouse which the territorial government was to lease until it repaid the loan to the WCB. Rodgers estimated the cost of a new stand-alone WCB office in the downtown would cost upwards of $30 million.