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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
After just one season of use, the wooden canoe racks which the city installed at Government Dock are being taken away.

A lone boat sits on the only remaining canoe rack on Monday morning. The city installed the racks last summer to keep the boats organized as well as to be able to charge owners an annual $200 storage fee. However, the racks were never used, and they are being replaced by a tagging system as of Sept. 1. - Cody Punter/NNSL photo

The racks were originally built to organize the canoes as part of the city's efforts to clean up the site.

However, the racks went largely unused over the past summer, due to the fact that they were awkward to access.

"You go down there and there's no canoes on them," said canoe owner and houseboater Simon Toogood. "People don't use them, they never did."

The racks were also intended as a way for the city to keep track of the canoes, so that they could charge owners for using the space, but because no one used the racks, the city had no way to enforce the bylaw.

"What happened was when they first went up, people paid their fee and they were using the racks, but after a while they just started pulling them up next to the racks," said Jeff Humble, director of planning and development. "So they were legitimately licenced to store them but they were being not being properly stored."

Humble said when they were built, it was unsure whether the racks would be temporary or permanent structures.

"We were going to wait until after the summer and fall to see what the results of the public consultations were," said Humble.

Based on consultations and feedback from canoe owners, the city decided to remove the racks and create a "lay-down area" to open up boat access to the water.

In order to ensure people are paying for storage space, the city will now be issuing tags to identify the canoes. The $200 storage fee that comes with the tag will be the same as the fee for the racks.

Any boats which do not have a tag by Sept. 1 will be removed by the city.

For the time being, the city plans to keep the space as is, although it is considering the possibility of building a wooden deck for canoes next summer.

Toogood said there is no need for a platform and that the space should be maintained as is.

"There's gravel there, why not just use the gravel," he said. "It's just another form of ground. Whether I put my canoe on wood or gravel doesn't really matter to me."

The city has issued an invitation to tender for Government Dock to complete work such as paving, landscaping, and installing posts and foundations for signs. The budget for both Pilot's Monument and Government Dock is $600,000.

The invitation closed on Tuesday at 11 a.m.

Humble said plans for a deck were not included in the current tender, but the city might consider building one next summer.

He emphasized that any additional work would be dependent on public consultation and that the city wants to avoid wasting money on the project.

"Part of the thing we've done with the government dock is to try and plan it in a way that we're not going to misspend taxpayers money," said Humble.

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