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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Yellowknife Catholic School board will have an important decision to make Sept. 6 on whether to purchase a $1.41-million plot of land in downtown Yellowknife.

"What we would like to do is rather than pay rent, we'd like to own," said Mike Huvenaars, assistant superintendent of business for Yellowknife Catholic Schools.

Currently, YCS pays $4,200 a month in rent to use a stretch of land with three portables behind Weledeh School. What the school board is considering is buying that land all the way up to and including the Tallah Building, located at 4509 Franklin Ave. beside the old Prestige nightclub. The Tallah Building is currently occupied by Aurora College, and the land and the building, consisting of 2,500 square metres, are owned by the Rocher family.

Huvenaars said despite the high price tag of $1.41 million and the fact the YCS is running a $200,000 deficit for the 2010-2011 school year, the deal makes sense. After mortgage payments, the amount of money saved by owning rather than renting the land as well as the rental income from Aurora College would generate an estimated profit of $34,000 a year.

"We need the land for the portable classrooms, so that's one of the reasons. The other reason is that we should be making money every year by doing this. So that's two good reasons," he said.

If the deal is approved, YCS would purchase the land with a loan from the GNWT.

Huvenaars added that YCS isn't planning any new construction, and that they are happy to have Aurora College as tenants.

Jane Arychuk, Aurora College's director of the Yellowknife campus, said the building currently has an underground mine training simulator and classroom space. She added that the potential acquisition doesn't concern the college. "Nothing's going to change for us, we'll just have a new landlord. That will be it," she said

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