Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to rise in the House today to celebrate a significant event in my riding and indeed in the city of Yellowknife. The Yellowknife Condominium Corporation No. 8, Northlands Mobile Home Park, has gathered enough votes, received the approval of their members to move ahead –
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…to move ahead on a deal with the City of Yellowknife to replace the crumbling sewer and water lines in the park. Under the deal, the city, acting on behalf of the condo corporation, will borrow $15.7 million for the construction project. Homeowners will repay that loan through a local improvement fee, an extra property tax attached to the property. The payback period will be 25 years. The end result will see the roads and water and sewer infrastructure at Northlands transferred to the City of Yellowknife. Northlands property owners will be just like the rest of us property owners in Yellowknife, something they’ve been looking for for a long time.
A minimum of 60 percent of homeowners had to sign on to the agreement for it to be approved. By the end of the day Wednesday, 80 percent of Northlands owners had signed the petition. The corporation had 60 days to gather those signatures. It took them two weeks.
Supporters of Northlands started a Facebook page a year or so ago. Here are a few of the comments posted to that page in the last couple of days:
“I slept better last night than I had in a long time.”
“OMG. This is too good to be true.”
“Best news I have heard in a long time.”
They’re very happy residents. I’d like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the hard work of the Condo No. 8 board members over many years. I would also like to thank the City of Yellowknife for being the only order of government that stepped up to the plate, accepted the moral responsibility to help, and worked countless hours with the board to hammer out the details of the process. Lastly, but definitely not least, I would like to congratulate the residents of Northlands on finally reaching this milestone. Good job, guys. Let’s get digging.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
