SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Ndilo acting chief Roy Erasmus Sr. said this week that the Yellowknives Dene are being shortchanged by the City of Yellowknife when it comes to issuing senior parking meter passes.
Seniors parking permit policies
- For the use of seniors, 60 or over, who are retired and on a fixed income
- Only available at city hall
- Only issued to vehicles registered in the NWT
- Only issued to people who reside within Yellowknife boundaries
- Only issued to personally registered vehicles, not for commercial, government or public service registered vehicles.
- Only valid at one-and two-hour parking meters and only valid for the maximum time on the meter
- Pass only issued for a maximum of one year
- Pass is non-transferable and a new one must be obtained if the licence plate or the vehicle changes
- The pass may be revoked if used improperly
- Permit is to be used only by the senior
- There is no fee for the exemption pass
Source: City of Yellowknife
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A new policy implemented by the city last summer now limits those who can receive the green sticker for their vehicle's window to people who are 60 years old or over, retired and living on a fixed income.
Users must also live within municipal boundaries and use the stickers for personal licence plates if they want to get free parking at downtown meters. Living outside municipal boundaries, however, means long-standing residents who live in the Yellowknives community of Dettah, as well as on the Ingraham Trail, won't be eligible.
"The feeling is once you have hit 60 you've contributed quite a bit to the city and the Northwest Territories," said Erasmus, who is upset Dettah seniors are excluded, whom he said are all part of the same Dene band as those elders residing in Ndilo.
"This is our traditional area and we are all one First Nation, Dettah and Ndilo together. We don't consider that artificial boundary to be there to give us different rights."
Erasmus said he intended to write Mayor Mark Heyck and council a letter to look into the matter but held off, thinking the matter would work itself out.
"I did ask him what was going on because there were others (in Ndilo) who said they weren't able to get a seniors pass because the city staff told them they made too much money."
Dennis Marchiori, the city's director of public safety, said an administrative error led to the city issuing seniors passes to anyone over 60 – regardless of where they lived – for about two years leading up to last July. However, people living outside city limits were never supposed to get them.
"I know that there have been issues in the past with the Akaitcho that if they live in Dettah that they should have a parking pass to which we say, 'no, you don't live in the city limits and haven't paid taxes toward the city,'" said city director of public safety Dennis Marchiori. He noted Ndilo and city residents pay into the Municipal Taxing Authority, whereas residents living on Highway 3, Ingraham Trail and Dettah pay taxes to the General Taxing Authority.
Doug Gillard, manager of municipal enforcement, told council last week the changes came last summer after the city found it was handing out too many parking passes.
"Several months ago we developed a policy on some of these parking passes that we issue so that it would be more structured for staff to follow," said Gillard.
"With the senior passes, there were two significant changes. One was that the person had to be a resident within our boundaries of Yellowknife and the second was that they had to be a person registered with a motor vehicle. It couldn't be a commercial plate. This was so that people who were operating a business weren't being given free parking."
Gillard said that after the city changed the definition of "senior" to 60 from 65 years old in 2004, it "increased the number of passes we were issuing by 50 per cent."
Last week, Coun. Phil Moon Son said he has heard a number of complaints lately that seniors remain confused about the city's process for approving and denying senior parking passes.
"The issue is that city council needs to deal with this issue fairly quickly and they need to implement some type of consistency," said Moon Son. "To me. if administration has the rationale that they want to modify the evaluation so that the streets are not being bombarded by seniors, I cannot understand that and I don't buy that."
Moon Son said he sees the move as a cash grab by the city and an issue council needs to discuss in greater detail.
Senior administrative officer Dennis Kefalas said last week he intended to have the issue brought up at a future municipal services committee as well as find a better way to communicate the issue to the public.
