A legal battle over unauthorized NWT cabins, years in the making, is resulting in cases winding through the courts, and some cabin owners without leases are being forced to vacate the structures.
In one instance, a resident purchased a cabin without a lease on Banting Lake, about 20 km north of Yellowknife, in 2015. He applied for a lease before making the transaction, but was denied because the NWT Commissioner, who assumed jurisdiction over much of the NWT from the federal government in 2014, was reviewing recreational cabin leasing and developing a framework for the territory.
This cabin owner was later hired by the GNWT's Department of Lands. The employee confessed that he was in possession of an unauthorized cabin and his department supervisor assured him that he would "get a lease," according to a June 11 NWT Supreme Court transcript.
"He was subsequently advised that he would not be involved in any decisions regarding unauthorized cabins," the court document states.
Years later, in 2022, Department of Lands officials told the man that he wouldn't be allowed to apply for a cabin lease and his site "would be recommended for removal," although he was advised that he could fight the charges in court.
Judge Sheila MacPherson didn't make a final ruling in this case. She determined that the GNWT may have been relying on inaccurate information in regards to site non-compliance and therefore directed the territorial government to double-check its facts and then reapply for a summons, if still warranted.
Admitted squatter
In another case, dating back to 2007, a resident acquired a cabin without a lease at Narcisse Lake, approximately 33 km north of Yellowknife. The land in question is also administered by the NWT Commissioner. The original owner of the cabin told the new owner in an email that he "built the little shack off the record" and that he didn't want to be legally recognized as having erected it.
Several years later, the new owner inquired with the Department of Lands about obtaining a lease, but one was not granted.
In her court decision, dated June 11, MacPherson noted that the cabin owner acknowledged that "every cabin out there is on government land" and that "I admitted that I was squatting" in a media interview.
The judge decreed that the man must abandon the cabin "without delay."
Trying to join Yellowknives Dene
In yet another case, a man who built a cabin in the late 1990s north of Narcisse Lake appealed to the court that he is Indigenous. As a member of the Qalipu Mi'kmaq First Nation in Newfoundland, he's attempting to have his band membership transferred to the Yellowknives Dene First Nation (YKDFN), as he was born in Yellowknife.
He's without a proper lease and "relies on his Indigenous status to justify his occupancy of the site," the June 11 court transcript reads.
He stated to the court that he received verbal assurances from government officials in the late 1990s and again in the early 2000s that because they had Indigenous status, he and members of his family could construct a small, traditional use cabin without a lease.
MacPherson pointed out that established Supreme Court of Canada law makes clear that being Indigenous doesn't mean that all Aboriginal and treaty rights, such as hunting and fishing, can be exercised anywhere.
"There is a necessary geographical element. It is site-specific," the court document reads, citing precedent.
The judge also noted that a transfer of membership to the Yellowknives Dene is "speculative and hypothetical."
"Also hypothetical, at this stage, is the legal effect of what that membership transfer would mean in terms of his possible rights as a member of the YKDFN," MacPherson added.
While recognizing that an order to remove his family cabin would have a significant effect on the man, the judge stated that she's also cognizant of the Commissioner's obligations "to manage territorial lands in a responsible manner and that unauthorized occupancy is a longstanding land management issue across the Northwest Territories."
She then ordered the man to clear out his cabin.
In 2021, the Department of Lands issued close to 100 notices relating to cabins believed to without leases. The responsibility now falls under the Department of Environment and Climate Change.
