Laura Power
Northern News Services
Wednesday, May 09, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - More than 80 per cent of residents polled in this year's citizen's survey say Yellowknife's housing supply is simply unaffordable.

The Ipsos Reid survey, which reached 801 residents, revealed that 83 per cent rated Yellowknife's housing affordability as poor or very poor. The survey's results were delivered to city council during a committee meeting Monday.

Coun. Bob Brooks said he is not surprised by the survey's findings.

" I can't imagine anybody not wanting to see prices come down," he said.

He said what the survey didn't take into account is the take-home pay working people in Yellowknife are making, which is higher than most pay rates in the country.

Mayor Van Tighem, meanwhile, insisted the cost of housing in Yellowknife is not quite as high as in several other Canadian cities.

"Our cost of housing here isn't increasing nearly as quickly as it is in other places," he said. "The cost of a lot in Yellowknife is still only one third of what it costs in Calgary and one half in Edmonton."

The survey results also revealed that 52 per cent believe there is not enough low density housing in the city, including single-family homes and duplexes.

The idea of reducing the curbside garbage bag limit to two from three a week brought out large opposition from those surveyed, with 40 per cent strongly opposing the limit and 12 per cent somewhat opposing it.

"For 2007 we're not ready to go to the three-to-two," said Brooks.

The survey wasn't all bad news. Overall, the quality of life in the city was rated either good or very good by 96 per cent of the people surveyed, although 20 per cent said they feel the quality of life has gone down due to problems such as illegal drug use, crime and the cost of housing.

Catherine Gunther, a senior research manager for Ipsos Reid, said the survey is generally positive.

"I think Yellowknife has a lot working well for it," she said.

For overall performance by city council, 91 per cent of residents say they are doing either a good job or a very good job.

"I think it was indicative that we continue to enjoy success as a community, to be a place that people want to live in and that people aren't forced to live here - they choose to live here," said Van Tighem.

Brooks is interested to see if the rate of satisfaction with city council remains as high in next year's survey.

"In that light, I mean, this is a brand new council so I think it'll be a nice test to see how they do next year, because I think most of the questions that were answered were based on the previous council's performance," he said.