ItSA国际影视传媒檚 good to have land.

Better still to be on the water, many a real estate enthusiast would tell you. Those properties keep their value (unless theySA国际影视传媒檙e reclaimed by the sea, of course).

Geographical Yellowknife has plenty of water to look at but as the numbers bear out, Yellowknife the city administration has precious little land.

ThatSA国际影视传媒檚 bad. Cities deal with places for people to live, to work and to play and the ways they have to get from one to the other. They deal with finding locations to learn and to be mended when weSA国际影视传媒檙e hurt, and the special and mundane things that improve our quality of life.

Cities need land for all of this. So itSA国际影视传媒檚 appropriate that the significant swathes of land within city limits, from squared off lot-like plots within the urban footprint to great expanses stymied only by the invisible box that forms the municipal boundary, are indicated in bright green in a map provided to city councillors last week. ItSA国际影视传媒檚 11,400 acres in all, 59 per cent of the GNWTSA国际影视传媒檚 holdings within that magic box and itSA国际影视传媒檚 enviable.

ItSA国际影视传媒檚 like Christmas in September, it is. That 59 per cent is a lot of acres and hectares, and itSA国际影视传媒檚 not even all of the territorial governmentSA国际影视传媒檚 holdings in Yellowknife. The GNWT owns three of every four square centimetres of land within the citySA国际影视传媒檚 boundary, much of it the SA国际影视传媒渦nfettered, vacantSA国际影视传媒� type that planners beam for and developers fight over. The city itself only has the deeds for about a paltry 11 per cent of its own land mass.

ItSA国际影视传媒檚 also a nice step in devolution, as Mayor Rebecca Alty pointed out. Any process of moving land from the federal realm down to the territory and through to the local level is to be encouraged. It is also sort of interim: reading a word like SA国际影视传媒渄evolutionSA国际影视传媒� immediately brings to mind closely connected terms like SA国际影视传媒渞econciliation.SA国际影视传媒� So, it would make sense to expect a respectable portion of the land transfer to find its way under the auspices and control of the Yellowknifes Dene First Nation (YKDFN).

The transfer would exclude mine properties undergoing remediation (thatSA国际影视传媒檚 good SA国际影视传媒� the larger the order of government responsible for that liability, the better for everyone) and lands identified in the Akaitcho Treaty 8 land withdrawal process. The latter, according to Akaitcho Treaty 8 Tribal Corporation, includes 1,034 hectares of land within the city boundary.

WeSA国际影视传媒檒l have to see what the final transfer of land looks like after the YKDFN is consulted: the GNWT has a Section 35 duty, and the city as a practice has been consulting the YKDFN on land-use issues since at least 2020, according to the city manager. But hereSA国际影视传媒檚 hoping the process is a relatively smooth and straightforward one.

That would be a bit of a change. As Coun. Niels Konge described in a meeting last week, having to navigate the GNWTSA国际影视传媒檚 bureaucracy every time a parcel of land changes hands or someone wants to build something (or both) is a deal-killer, full stop.

SA国际影视传媒淚tSA国际影视传媒檚 no wonder developers just give up,SA国际影视传媒� Konge said. SA国际影视传媒淭he process is so difficult and so time-consuming to get land. ISA国际影视传媒檓 pleased the GNWT has finally seen the light and is agreeing to do this.SA国际影视传媒�

A city with dominion over the land within its boundaries, not to mention one further along the path to reconciliation SA国际影视传媒� what a new normal that would be.