Jack Danylchuk
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, September 12, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - On paper, Yellowknife's trail network connects every city neigbourhood, offering runners, hikers, cyclists and dog walkers quiet moments in forest groves, close encounters with wildlife and breathtaking views from glaciated bluffs overlooking Great Slave Lake.

Bikers, hikers, bears and dog walkers all share the trails on Tin Can Hill. - NNSL file photo

When it was presented to the public in 2005, the Integrated Parks, Trails and Open Space Study plotted $1.3 million in new paved and rustic paths around the city, with boardwalks, bridges and underpasses but no new vistas have been added to the trails that opened a decade ago on Frame and Niven lakes.

"The biggest challenge after money is the land tenure issue," Mayor Gord Van Tighem said in a recent interview with Yellowknifer, referring to questions that can only be answered with settlement of the Akaitcho First Nations land claims.

"It could be in one year, it could be five years," Van Tighem said.

Until the claim is settled there will be no development on a key leg of the trail system, the mine-to-mine trail from Negus Point to the boat launch at Giant Mine.

But the Akaitcho claim isn't the only barrier to trail development.

The city set aside $250,000 five years ago for its share of a $500,000 plan to build trails and viewing platforms on Twin Pine Hill as part of a casino and hotel proposed by Yellowknife River Resorts - a project that Van Tighem expects will finally go ahead sometime next year.

Tin Can Hill is a year or more away from being turned over to the territorial government, cleansed of mining residue, and ready for residential development.

Until then, the maze of roads and informal trails that crisscross the hill is shared by quads and motorbikes, cyclists, dog walkers and the occasional wandering bear.

The city's Waterfront Development Plan continues to hold out the possibility of boardwalks on Latham Island and Willow Flats, but it's left mostly to volunteer efforts, and progress on the projects has been slow.

At the current rate of construction, the trail from the Rotary Club's Centennial Park might not reach the Woodyard for another decade.

For the most part, the trails are components of other plans - for housing subdivisions or industrial park expansion - a feature that might have slowed development more than if the many separate links were bound under a single cover with its own time line and budget. Damien Panayi, a past-president of the Yellowknife Multi-Sport Club, said it might be better to have an overall plan for trail development that considers the needs of all users, but for the moment he is happy that the subject is on the civic agenda and that city council is receptive.

"Trails are an integral part in the next phases of the Niven Lake development," he noted, remembering the club's struggle to have trails included in earlier phases of the subdivision plan. "Our message did get through to council."

The club organizes running events and bicycle races that sometimes include Tin Can Hill, which he sees as a way of asserting the claims of recreational users to the roads and trails "so that our needs will be considered when the area is developed."

Gary Tait, a race organizer for the club, thinks the city should look to communities like Rossland, B.C., where winter ski trails have been developed for summer use and are now part of its pitch to tourists.

"The city doesn't have a building or maintenance program for trails; it's a volunteer effort that falls on three or four people who help out at the ski club," said Tait.

"There is nothing for Tin Can Hill and the trails there are being torn up by quads and motor bikes that aren't supposed to be there."

Tasha Stephenson of Ecology North is optimistic that the delay in developing trails will be brief.

The organization presented to city council its own proposals for making streets safer for bicycles last year.

"They are operating on a budget and agenda that was set out for them by the previous council," noted Stephenson, who expects to see a change in emphasis when the new budget is established for the coming year.

Mayor Van Tighem said that until the Akaitcho identified the Yellowknife Ski Club lands as part of their land withdrawal, the city had $120,000 budgeted to complete the trail link between Niven Lake and the boat launch at Giant Mine.

"The money in the budget, it's just awaiting the Akaitcho final agreement," said Van Tighem.

In the meantime, the city is moving forward with the new Engle business district and plans for a road and trails between Kam Lake, Grace Lake and the airport.

The road will be built in partnership with the territorial government and Van Tighem is confident that the project will proceed. "By 2009 we can run the Yellowknife Marathon on it," he said.