The NWT government says accessibility upgrades to washrooms at the Yellowknife courthouse should be complete by the end of September, more than five years after they were ordered.
Following a human rights complaint filed in late 2016, the Human Rights Adjudication Panel ordered the NWT Department of Justice in May 2021 to upgrade washrooms at the courthouse to meet barrier-free standards.
The tribunal awarded the complainant, who had faced barriers accessing the washrooms as a person living with multiple sclerosis, $5,000 in compensation.
In a follow-up ruling recently published online, adjudicator Sheldon Toner dismissed the complainant’s request for a declaration of ongoing discrimination as well as exemplary and punitive damages due to the department’s failure to comply in the ensuing years.
Toner said, however, that she had “highlighted legitimate concerns about the timeliness of the GNWT’s implementation” of the orders.
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“This matter is of significant public interest since it concerns accessibility to the courthouse, one of the most critical buildings in the Northwest Territories and one which should be fully accessible under human rights law,” he wrote.
The courthouse is a six-storey building on Yellowknife’s 49 Street with washrooms on each floor. According to tender documents, the building was constructed around 1978 and is currently privately owned and leased by the justice department.
Ngan Trinh, a spokesperson for the department, told Cabin Radio in a statement that renovation of the washrooms began in June 2025 and is on track to be complete by September 30 this year.
Trinh said delays to the project were the result of challenges securing design services due to limited local capacity, the evacuation of Yellowknife in 2023 due to wildfires, and the “need to align and secure capital funding.”
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She added that during renovations, “several unforeseen building conditions required repairs and design modifications,” while the presence of asbestos necessitated remediation and air monitoring.
“Throughout construction, the Department of Justice, courthouse occupants, and the contractor worked closely together to ensure work was completed safely while maintaining public access to court programs and services and keeping the facility operational,” Trinh wrote, adding that “significant progress has been made.”
Responding to questions from MLAs in the legislature last month, finance minister Caroline Wawzonek attributed some of the delay to the courthouse washroom upgrades to “waiting on certain materials to arrive.”
“I think part of the challenge on this particular project was that there may have been some delays in terms of the awarding of the contract, that it had to be re-tendered,” she added.
Wawzonek said other planned multi-year renovations to the courthouse, including security improvements, are in the design phase.
Toner’s decision details updates the justice department provided to the Human Rights Adjudication Panel on the washroom renovation project between August 2022 and January 2026.
Some of the steps outlined included numerous meetings, approval from the Legislative Assembly to allocate capital funding to design and construction work, changes in scope and updates to project drawings, a review of structural concerns, revisions to the construction tender, and testing for asbestos.
Tender documents state that hazardous materials in the building needed to be selectively demolished and monitored. The documents also advised that construction would need to be phased to ensure washrooms on adjacent floors would be available for use by the public and courthouse staff, while active abatement work would need to be done outside business hours to limit disturbances.
Winnipeg-based firm Republic Architecture Inc completed designs for the washroom renovations, while Yellowknife company Horizon Builders was awarded a $1.59-million contract for construction.
