The docks are safe for now: City of Yellowknife to work with territory to improve access to city waterfront

Property owners along a stretch of Morrison Drive on Yellowknife's Latham Island may find themselves at the centre of a debate about waterfront access again this fall.

City council got some clarity on Monday from the N.W.T. Department of Lands regarding who should get access to the city's shoreline.

"The Department of Lands' position since 2014 is that waterfront land management should be done to ensure public access," said Conrad Baetz, assistant deputy minister of operations.

"The [Territorial] Lands Act requires the department to maintain a 100 foot wide strip of land around a lake or river, whenever a lease or other disposition to public land is granted," Baetz said.

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Following devolution in 2014, the government of the Northwest Territories inherited jurisdiction over the first 100 feet (30 metres) of shoreline on essentially all public lake and river waterfront in the territory.

Previously, jurisdiction of public land was split into federal Crown land and territorial Commissioner's land.

Different governments, different priorities

The territory's approach to managing public access to waterfront land in Yellowknife took a different tack from the federal government's in a recent subdivision development in the city.

Grace Lake North, which was developed and sold under federal rules, has lots that extend to and include the shoreline. Lots at Grace Lake South, developed after devolution, do not include ownership of the shoreline.

"On the south side [of Grace Lake], we approached the territorial government with the same request but were turned down."

'Legal limbo'

Balancing private and public interest on city waterfront is a difficult proposition. Some areas, like the shoreline between Morrison Drive and Back Bay, have had decades of continuous use, with permanent docks built for boats and floatplanes.

But the legal status of this development is complicated; it's in a kind of "legal limbo," said Mayor Mark Heyck. 

"The City has had a lease to that stretch of property for decades. Subleases to adjacent property owners expired and were not renewed by the city," Heyck said.

"It's a fairly complex matter regarding land tenure -- who owns what -- and what are the rights of the public versus what are the rights of adjacent property owners."

But the territory has made its position clear: the unregulated development of shoreline structures is not something the Department of Lands wants to see continue.

"When we get to the point where there are private docks, private boathouses, and those kinds of things along the public access, [those] are the things we're trying to lessen to some extent … to encourage public access," Baetz said.

City and territory could cooperate

The department declined to comment on whether or not existing shoreline development along the Morrison Drive waterfront is on its radar. But because the Latham Island shoreline involves property leased to the City, it means the territory would work with the City to balance public and private interests.

"There's a willingness to sit down and talk with the City and see if there's some other model of land tenure that we can come up with," said Heyck, "that both preserves access to the waterfront, but also maintains some of the amenities that people who live along that stretch of Morrison Drive have become accustomed to."

The docks are safe for now, but Heyck expects council will revisit the waterfront debate in the fall.

"I think it would be beneficial to everyone involved that we find resolution to this. In my time as councillor and mayor we've probably talked about this issue a dozen or more times," Heyck said.

"It would be good to be able to put it to bed once and for all."