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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Centre Square Mall is not a very baby-friendly place, says Monique Froehler.

Ten days ago the Yellowknife mom took her nine-month-old daughter to Centre Square Mall to look for a fancy dress for the baby to wear for a family photo.

As she entered Loony Loonies, the store manager saw she was bringing in a baby stroller with young Edzea inside it. She didn't get very far.

"He said, 'excuse me ma'am, leave the stroller out front,'" said Froehler, who wasn't sure if the man meant the baby as well.

She said the man told her "you're going to bump things off the shelves," and again demanded she leave the stroller outside. Humiliated, Froehler left, then came back to tell him his stroller policy was wrong and that she has never had any problem taking her stroller through any other store in the city. The stroller is less than 12 inches wide. She added her baby now weighs 20 pounds and is difficult to carry for very long.

Froehler wondered what the manager would say to shoppers who use wheelchairs.

Centre Square Mall in general is not very baby - or wheelchair - friendly either, said Froehler, who pointed to the stairs that divide the mall between the upper and lower levels.

The mother's complaint is a common one that dates back to the start of the mall's construction in 1990. The two levels are separated by stairs - and different owners. Ownership of both levels have changed hands since the mall first opened.

"Because they are two separate businesses and technically two separate buildings, they were allowed to get away with it," said city councillor Lydia Bardak, referring to the separate wheelchair access points. Bardak was the executive director of the NWT Council of Persons with Disabilities at the time. She argued that even though the mall had split ownership, no one else in the city saw the difference.

"I've long been irritated by the way it was handled but there really wasn't any leg for us to stand on," said Bardak.

Bill Fandrick, city manager of building inspections, said the mall predates 1995 provisions under the Canadian Building Code that require buildings open to the public to have wheelchair accessibility.

Older buildings, said Fandrick, "don't have to necessarily comply retroactively but when an owner undertakes a major modification or alteration of the building or makes an alteration to an entranceway, then we would require code compliance."

Bill Burles, a board member of the disabilities council, said he remembers when the owner of the upper level, which includes the Yellowknife Inn, said he was willing to pay half the costs for putting in an indoor ramp but only if the lower mall owner put in a share as well. That never happened.

Today, Burles, who uses a wheelchair, faces another obstacle at the mall. A few months ago a glass partition separating the upper mall and the Yellowknife Inn was installed. The partition includes a locked door. The Yellowknife Inn entrance at 49 Street provides the only wheelchair access into the upper level. Burles can't access the Franklin Avenue entrance because the doors there are a foot above the sidewalk. The 50 Street entrance is also impassible.

Burles said the inn has agreed to let wheelchair users pass through the glass partition to get into the mall, but it isn't easy.

"I understand they want to curtail some of the traffic flow, but come on," he said.

Reaching the lower mall from the upper level is also an ordeal.

To do that, Burles must wheel through the glass partition, through the doors at the Yellowknife Inn entrance, down the wheelchair ramp, along the sidewalk on 49 Street for most of a block, up another wheelchair ramp and then through the doors into the lower level.

"Grin and bear it" is how Burles deals with his journey on particularly cold days.

Therese Boullard, NWT Human Rights commissioner, said her office hasn't received complaints about wheelchair and stroller access to Yellowknife stores but there have been some in other jurisdictions.

She said Section 11 of the NWT Human Rights Act states "a public service provider must make its public services accessible to all of its public, including those in wheelchairs" unless it proves an "undue hardship."

Derek Carmody, general manager of the Yellowknife Inn, said the glass partition was approved by the city and the fire marshal. He said staff have been instructed to buzz through wheelchair users and parents with strollers who want to use the mall.

"The plan for the summer is to try to figure out how to put in an access on the Franklin Avenue entrance," said Carmody.

"It will have the ramp and everything up front for access."

The stairs between the upper and lower levels, he said, belong to Shelter Canadian, which owns the lower mall.

Dave Polakoff, the Centre Square property manager, declined to comment. As for Loony Loonies, manager Ngoc Jiang said the store has stopped allowing strollers in because merchandise has been knocked over by them in the past, and he worries a baby will be hurt. He's also worried about theft.

"Many, many ladies bring strollers in and they steal our stuff," said Jiang. "It's not easy to check."