City says big water project doesn’t mean any Tin Can Hill development

The City of Yellowknife has pushed back at suggestions that the installation of a major new water line could trigger development of the Tin Can Hill green space, saying nothing of the sort is planned.

Adrian Bell, a realtor and former city councillor who is campaigning for a return to council in next month’s election, said on Tuesday he believed the project indicated “the City thinks Tin Can Hill is up next” for development.

A residents’ group has battled for years to keep Tin Can Hill free of development after an earlier, since-aborted plan to base a college campus there. It’s considered a key green space for residents and dog owners.

The city is in the middle of trying to get a large new water main built that will supply the Engle Business District on Yellowknife’s western edge. That water will also be used by the Department of National Defence as it works on major upgrades to its presence at Yellowknife Airport, which presently has no piped water.

In a Facebook post, Bell presented a screenshot drawn from city documents that shows options for the route of that water main. He noted engineering consultants Aecom had selected a preferred route – in yellow – that is depicted crossing Tin Can Hill then heading through the south of the city to the Engle Business District.

Aecom “recommended by far the longest and most expensive route, the route through Tin Can Hill, Taylor Road and up Deh Cho Boulevard,” Bell wrote.

“Their main justification for this? The City told Aecom that those are the areas slated next for development in our City, starting with Tin Can Hill.”

Cabin Radio could not find a section of the documents in which the city or Aecom suggest Tin Can Hill is intended for development. Aecom states it recommends the route in yellow primarily because the two areas the city wants to develop most are sections of the Engle Business District nearest the end of that yellow line, and this is the easiest way to get the water there.

Chris Greencorn, the city’s director of public works, said there was no plan to develop Tin Can Hill and the latest version of the project is likely to bypass the hill entirely, with the water main potentially running along a path more akin to the black dotted line that skirts the hill’s northwestern edge.

There could be some work in the vicinity of Rat Lake, Greencorn said, to add underground infrastructure. Work to take the water main across Con Road near Rat Lake will also be needed. Those details are being worked through.

“We’re quite early on in the whole conversation, but we’re trying to run as fast as we can to keep ahead of DND because ideally we would want water and sewer infrastructure in the ground ahead of their major construction works,” he told Cabin Radio.

“Could there be disruption to Tin Can Hill proper? Yes,” for the duration of any construction work, he said, if the city’s preferred route does not work out. “Will there be the development of the Tin Can Hill parcel? No.”

Bell, reached by phone on Tuesday, said he would study the plans again. Greencorn conceded the yellow line shown crossing Tin Can Hill could be interpreted to suggest large-scale change, adding it came from “very early on” in planning for the project.

“I can definitely see how that’s somewhat misleading, and I’m glad we’re having that conversation so that we can get some clarifying information out there,” Greencorn said.

More broadly, Greencorn said that while Aecom’s preferred route for the water main is a longer and more expensive option than others, it comes with significant benefits.

The city already has the land on which the new pumphouse would be constructed if that route goes ahead, he said, which is a big plus. It’s also a central location to supply water to DND and a wide range of development west of the airport.

Meanwhile, the water main’s route will ease pressure on pumphouse four, which is struggling to meet demand in southern and western neighbourhoods, and Greencorn said it could also help pumphouse four supply water to new housing planned for Frame Lake.

“This routing through to the southern part of town can help fix the pumphouse four capacity issues while at the same time delivering water to the Engle Business District,” Greencorn said.

“We’re trying to be proactive. We’re trying to be ahead of the game, and I think we’re moving at a pretty good pace just to try to deliver on what the federal government wants and what the community needs in terms of housing.”