Tent encampment in Yellowknife moves to new location

The tent encampment that was at the corner of Yellowknife’s 49 Street and 52 Avenue moved to a new location on Monday.

The encampment had appeared on the privately owned lot, opposite Sir John Franklin High School, last Wednesday. Occupants were soon told to leave by the lot’s owner.

By Tuesday, the group had moved to a paved lot off 51 Street, a few blocks away.

“This new location is a little better for us,” said Colton Migwi, one of the occupants of the site. Migwi said the group now has access to power on either side of the lot, and that staying on concrete instead of ground is “better, to be honest.”

An estimated 15 people are staying at the site, including Craig Strachan.

Strachan said the group plans to stay in the new spot “as long as we possibly can … until it gets too cold.”  

“Everyone’s settling in,” Strachan said, “People, you know, they feel a lot better now that we have a place that we’re not worried about getting kicked out of.”

Strachan said the the group found its new location through the City of Yellowknife, which he said had “lined it up for us.”

Deputy mayor Garrett Cochrane, however, said the group chose the new location “completely on their own.”

Cochrane identified the lot as a Housing NWT property. He said the city would work with the NWT government, which operates Housing NWT – the territory’s public housing agency – to find ways to best support people experiencing homelessness.

“Unlike other municipalities in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, the City of Yellowknife does not have responsibility to police, or [provide] social services, or the authority to request the encampment to move as it was located on private property,” Cochrane said.

Though the city funds street outreach and leads a community advisory board on homelessness, Cochrane said the purpose of that board is to assist in an advisory capacity regarding homelessness issues, not to take a lead on them.

Cochrane said the city’s municipal enforcement division and fire department staff were on “a higher level of vigilance in regard to the encampments.”

“We’re also now eight weeks away before most likely [first] snowfall,” Cochrane said. “We will be working with the GNWT to come up with some form of solution here, but we will not be taking the lead in it.”