Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Tenants say the temporary gate the Union of Northern Workers arranged to have installed at its property on 52 Street is poorly made and almost unusable.

Annemieke Mulders, left, and Michele LeTourneau are unimpressed with the temporary gate the UNW installed. They had a volunteer demonstrate on video how difficult it is to unlock, open and close the gate. - Miranda Scotland/NNSL photo

"It was a problem from day one and every day it just gets worse from normal use. It's not meant to be used," said Annemieke Mulders, one of several people who live upstairs in the union's building. "We have no confidence anymore that (the UNW) intends to give us reasonable access."

Mulders and fellow tenant Michele LeTourneau posted a video on YouTube Sunday showing a woman, who they met on the street, trying to use the temporary gate upon their request.

First, the volunteer is seen fumbling to get the key into the padlock, which is on the opposite side of the gate. Then once she managed to get the lock off, she struggled to close the door again because the locking mechanism sticks out too far and the gate jams.

"This is crazy. OK guys, this is a stupid gate. How do you manage to close this gate?" the woman in the video said as she pushed on the wooden door, struggling to force it past the locking mechanism. After nearly a minute, the woman gets the gate in place but then she had trouble lining up the latch.

When she tried from the other side, the difficulty level was even higher.

Yellowknifer also tried the gate and encountered the same problem.

However, the union has since shaved off part of the gate so it will close without force and cut a semi-circle near where the padlock rests so the lock can be reached more easily.

Tenants of the building had been asking for a gate since May of last year, after an oil spill at Aurora Village headquarters cut off access to the east side of the union building. An Aurora Village representative declined to comment on how the cleanup is coming, saying only that the business is working on the problem.

The NWT rental officer ordered on three occasions that the UNW provide safe access to the apartments. The UNW filed appeals with the Supreme Court.

On June 14, the union had a temporary gate installed, one day in advance of a Supreme Court order to get the job done.

The contractor hired by the UNW is still waiting for materials for the permanent gate to arrive, said the union's lawyer Austin Marshall in court.

In the meantime, tenants can come in through the Aurora Village lot next door or via the alleyway behind the building but tenants say neither route is very safe. The temporary entrance was supposed to give tenants a better alternative.

The court has given the Union of Northern Workers until next Friday to replace the temporary gate with a permanent one.

An online petition has been started requesting that the UNW immediately put in a working gate. The signatories are also asking that the UNW to stop the appeals against the rental officer's decisions and that the executive of the UNW "call an immediate halt to all legal proceedings in regards to the access right of its tenants."

The petition had 44 signatures from UNW members and residents of the NWT as of yesterday. The UNW did not return phone calls seeking comment.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.