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A Piper Super Cab floatplane owned by the City of Yellowknife's senior administrative officer, Bob Long, has been moved to the public works garage at Kam Lake after residents questioned his use of a city-leased space in Old Town last spring. - Simon Whitehouse/NNSL photo

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A Piper Super Cub floatplane owned by senior administrative officer Bob Long is parked at the city public works garage at Kam Lake, but Mayor Gord Van Tighem says an agreement with the city's top bureaucrat stipulates he is allowed to put it there.

The plane was a source of controversy earlier this year when the city was trying to identify an appropriate location for a public floatplane dock in Old Town where users would be charged $500 a season to park their planes. Some residents were suspicious of the plan for the floatplane dock because Long was a member of the NWT Float Plane Association, the group pushing for the dock.

They also questioned why Long was allowed to park his plane for free on city-leased land on Wiley Road, near the Great Slave Yacht Club site.

Long couldn't be reached for comment but Van Tighem said the SAO moved his plane to the public works garage due to residents' concerns, sometime after the ice thawed last spring.

"If we want to recruit and more importantly retain employees, some concessions to their needs need to be given," said Van Tighem, adding other city employees also park their private recreational vehicles at the garage site.

"The plane in question was parked by agreement on Back Bay unlike the many others that are parked there without any tenure. When the floatplane/small boat project started drawing some negative attention, (the discussion) was going toward an individual rather than the overall issue. The plane was moved adjacent to where other (city) employees are parking."

Van Tighem said the issue should be a private one between an employee - in this case, Long - and his employer, the city. The mayor argued the situation is not unlike those concerning employees with the Department of National Defence being allowed to park personal vehicles at the Forward Operation Location (FOL), or NWT Power Corporation employees parking recreational vehicles at the Jackfish Lake power plant, or Department of Fisheries and Oceans employees having access to the department's garage site on MacDonald Drive.

Brendan Bell, chairman of the NWT Power Corporation, stated in an e-mail yesterday that "there is no set policy for parking recreational vehicles on the corporation's property." He added that recreational vehicles are parked at employees' own risk and that losses or damages are not the responsibility of the corporation.

"Should the corporation need the area where the vehicles are parked, the owners would have to remove them," he stated.

Lt. (Navy) Paul Pendergast, a public affairs officer with Joint Task Force North, said employees are not allowed to park personal vehicles at the FOL site.

"There is no space for them to park RVs or boats or anything else out there," he said.

George Fenn, a client liaison officer with the property management branch of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said as far as he was aware, no DFO employees are allowed to store private boats and vehicles at the department's Old Town garage site.

"As far as I'm concerned, there is not supposed to be any recreational vehicles, boats or airplanes tied up along there," said Fenn.

Van Tighem said Long is paying $400 a year to park the plane at the public works garage.

"To be extra cautious, it is being done with a licensing agreement and he is paying an annual fee, which is significantly more than a rental of a canoe slot," said Van Tighem.

"He could have parked it at the floatplane boat launch at the Latham Island parking spot, should it ever go in, and it would be much more convenient to his house, I'm certain. He would be paying a little bit more, but he would also have greater convenience."

Mayoral candidates seeking election later this month had varying opinions when asked about their views on whether city employees should be allowed to use city property to store their private vehicles and planes.

Paul Falvo said because a contractual arrangement was made with Long, it should be viewed the same as parking arrangements city employees get.

"It is part of a benefit that is provided for city employees to park and I am told that there are other items (at the public works garage), too, like motorhomes and trailers," said Falvo. "So that said, I don't have a concern with it being there."

Tim Doyle, however, said whether or not the parking benefit is provided in a contract, he doesn't think it is ideal that city staff should be able to use public land as a "toy box."

"If we are working with public land that is otherwise closed to everybody else and we are using it to store people's toys, I think there are certain liabilities that we are accepting as a municipality," he said. Doyle said he would want to review those liabilities if there was ever damage done to the plane on city property. "I just think it would be better suited parked on private property somewhere else."

Mark Heyck said the parking allowance is standard practice for employers, so he supports it.

"I think it happens already with the city and with other businesses and government departments," he said. "It is an added employee benefit in a lot of places and the city is no different. As I understand it there is a fee charge sometimes, which I think is the case (with the floatplane)."

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