SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - In a small lot on the lower level of Centre Square Mall, beside a closed down card shop, just below a shut down barber shop, and across from a long-abandoned clothing store, is a colourful little Northern crafts shop being forced out by the mall's management.

With businesses fleeing the mall and the downtown core left, right, and especially centre, and taking shoppers with them, Northern Arts and Crafts owner Pauline Williah is surprised a business that really wants to stay is being given the boot.

"The mall is practically dead most of the time," Williah said. "I thought I was doing good by bringing more customers."

Just when the single mother was beginning to turn a profit from her six-month-old store, she got an unexpected visit from a mall manager, announcing he was there for a walk-out inspection.

"It was a total shock when he came in," Williah said. "All I could say was 'what? What? What?'

"I wasn't planning on going anywhere."

Another property manager later called her from British Columbia to say her lease was not being renewed despite paying her bills, and she had until June 15 to clear the premises.

The space, tucked under the stairs about four-feet wide and 30-feet long, is usually leased on a month-to-month basis to trial new products, but after noticing her store attracting customers, Williah said a manager who has since been let go, gave her a six-month lease which started in December.

"I'm busy with people all the time," Williah said. "I know that my product sells easily and quickly. Especially the beads — they just go like wildfire."

Taught beading by her mother while growing up in Behchoko, Williah moved to the city two years ago to try and make a decent living for herself and her four children, selling her hand-maid beaded jewellery, gloves, and apparel, including mukluks, moccasins, and jackets made from leather, caribou and moose hide. Her store, which is shutting down Sunday, also carries carvings and artwork sold on consignment for her friends.

Her success may have been her downfall, because Williah said a property manager told her they could not renew her lease because a more established store in the mall complained that her business was too similar and they were losing customers as a result. Williah said she also heard management wanted her space for a future tenant next door that wanted more space.

The property manager for the mall's lower level in Richmond, B.C., denied Williah's account of the decision when reached for comment.

"You have some misinformation," said Tina Caven, a property manager with Huntington Real Estate Investment Trust, before repeating in response to questions, "I am not at liberty to comment on anything to do with any tenant at the mall."

Ryan Sundberg, another property manager with Huntington, said the company was not ready to discuss future development plans.

Tim Doyle, executive director of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, said Williah's story that Northern Crafts was being asked to move due to other competition in the mall was "unrealistic" and if her store is being displaced due the lower mall's future leasing plans, then Williah has no choice but to accept the lease agreement is up.

"I don't think anything malicious went on in this case," Doyle said. "If they wanted to stay in the mall, I'm sure there would be more than enough spaces to accommodate them, either in the lower or upper spaces. It's very vacant."

Either way, Williah said she is being forced out because the other spaces in the mall are too large for her business and she does not have the supplies to fill any other area. In addition, the original agreed upon $765 monthly rent, plus the adjusted monthly increase of more than $100 the lower mall's new management instituted two months ago for her lot, is all she said she could afford while supporting her children.

NWT Native Women's Association president Marilyn Napier said the mall should accommodate Williah, especially if management had been making other plans for her space.

"If they didn't tell her this was happening, this is not acceptable," Napier said, adding the organization will "support her 100 per cent if she needs help to continue her business.

Williah said she had taken out loans to renovate the space for her business, spending $2,000 on repainting and setting up a wall mount for her products.

"My children are more upset than me," she said, adding she's looking forward to spending more time with them at home in the meantime. "This is just a hurdle. I'll find a different spot to operate from."

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