Courthouse to be remodeled
Price tag unknown for work to merge lobbies, expand cells
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The GNWT plans to renovate the Yellowknife courthouse over the next two years, but isn't disclosing the price tag at this point.
Renovation plans for the Yellowknife courthouse building on 49 Street include merging two lobbies on the ground floor into one and increasing security. - Shane Magee/NNSL photo
|
The plans are briefly outlined in capital spending documents posted to the legislative assembly website.
The capital plan states the work will "improve security and capacity through layout revision, update cell locking systems and assumption of adjacent floor areas."
Currently the building has two lobbies. One has benches and a spiral staircase to a second floor seating area outside the main courtrooms, the other leads to two courtrooms and the building's elevators.
Those lobbies will be merged into one with a sheriff's station added. The renovations to that space will "improve security to public and staff," the document notes, though it was not clear how.
It's not apparent if metal detectors would be added to the lobby. As is, those entering the building are not subjected to bag searches or metal detectors; however, security has been tightened for some cases such as the recent sentencing of Roman Bourque when both measures were employed.
Details like the estimated cost of the work are not available to the public yet.
Efforts to gather more information about the GNWT's plans to spend taxpayer money on the building it currently rents, were not addressed by the Department of Justice. Spokesperson Sue Glowach wrote in an e-mail to Yellowknifer she is "not quite sure there is a 'story'" when the paper requested an interview on the plans. When the paper sent a list of questions to the department, it was told to inquire after the election.
She said an estimate for the work could not be provided because it has not gone to tender yet and a newly-elected government could revise the plans.
The planned renovation comes a decade after the government proposed spending $41 million to build a new courthouse along Frame Lake near the legislative assembly.
A 1998 report states the building, owned by Northern Property REIT, was originally designed to accommodate offices, not something specialized - like a courthouse. The report suggests it would be cheaper to build a new structure than renovate the existing one, which was considered overcrowded and posed security risks to staff and the public.
The GNWT spent several million on feasibility studies, site surveys and architectural designs at the time.
That plan for a new building was put on hold when the government came under pressure from MLAs outside the city who favoured spending the money on other projects, such as schools.
The GNWT rents the courthouse building - the court system occupying the first three of the six floors with the others utilized by the justice department.
In 2005, Yellowknifer reported the government had paid $959,000 per year to rent 5,569 square metres spread over those six floors, in addition to operation and maintenance costs. The current cost to rent the space was not provided by the department. If the cost has remained the same, the GNWT has paid more than $9.59 million over the past decade in rent alone.
Since the new courthouse plan was nixed, multiple renovations have been carried out including adding courtrooms, and moving the court registry and sheriff's offices to other floors. Renovations to the structure are paid for by the GNWT, Glowach said.
According to a 2007 story, work planned at that time to the second, third and fifth floors of the building was expected to cost $500,000.
A question about how much has recently been spent on renovations was not answered, so it is not clear how much the GNWT has spend in total on rent and renovations to the existing building since the plan for the new building was cut from the capital budget.
David Ramsay, prior to becoming justice minister during the most recent assembly, repeatedly called for the GNWT to build a new courthouse to save the territory money instead of engaging in incremental fixes to the existing building.
"As a government, we have spent millions of dollars and probably paid for the current facility at least 10 times over," he said Feb. 24, 2010 in the legislative assembly.
