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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Northland Trailer Park residents packed city hall chambers Monday night as city council unanimously passed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the municipality and Yk Condominium Corporation No. 8 to repair the area's broken water and sewer pipes.

The motion received an eruption of cheers from residents present.

The memorandum will now go to home owners through a plebiscite who will have 60 days to decide if the terms agreed upon are worth supporting. These include paying up to a $358-per-month local improvement charge (LIC) at a five-per-cent interest rate for 25 years.

The memorandum was passed with two amendments brought forward by board member Trevor Kasteel, who asked for assurance that the City of Yellowknife and YK Condominium Corp No. 8 will continue to work together to find further funding opportunities up until the project is complete and the local improvement charge begins.

As well, he asked that a working group be formed between the condo corporation, the city and the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs "to investigate funding for private versus public tenure and a cap of the LIC payment."

Couns. Mark Heyck, Shelagh Montgomery and Lydia Bardak opposed this latter amendment because of uncertainty of the legal implications being asked last minute at a council meeting.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem said the revisions will be subject to examination by city legal staff within the next day. As of press time, the mayor could not be reached to relay the ramifications of this examination.

Kasteel said the amendments came as a result of Northland not being able to get the city to agree to cap the local improvement charge at $358 per month the week before. ÏWade Friesen, condo board infrastructure committee member, had asked councillors at the municipal services committee on May 7 for the cap, which would have had the city covering potential cost overruns.ÏAs of last week, the condo board has agreed to allow for the city to provide chip sealing to the road surfacing as opposed to leaving it in gravel form.

Kasteel said he ultimately wanted the memorandum to go forward so the condo board members could begin the next step of explaining and selling its benefits to condo members.

"I just want to be clear that I want to get this deal done," said Kasteel, adding that even if a small amount of construction is done this year, it will be seen as progress. "We have been dealing with this for too long."

Most councillors did not seem to have much issue with making the last-minute revisions, given that Kasteel's requests did not seem to interfere with the MOU's overall consensus.

"The way I see is, neither of these motions would harm the memorandum or put the city in any bad way in the way they are written now," said Coun. Bob Brooks.

"But they do have the opportunity to find additional funds or move the project or reduce the costs."

Murray Jones, who has been living in Northland for three years, said he thinks it's a reasonable and fair solution for both parties.

"It is positive for the residents and positive for the city because they are accommodating a significant number of people," he said.

Jeremy Studney, another Northland resident, said he felt he was being well represented and indicated he would absolutely be voting in favour of the plebiscite.

"It is good to see the city is finally working with us in a very crucial manner," he said. "You get frustrated because - based on research I have done - other areas in town are paying the same taxes as we are and we have been treated differently. It is good to see everybody is now working together to solve this."

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