The City of Whitehorse has responded to allegations that it pressured Alpine Aviation into surrendering its dock space on Schwatka Lake with a timeline the company says is “not the whole truth.”

The city said Monday Alpine was required to give up Dock Site 11 because it has not been a permit holder of the site since 2001. Between 2001 and 2016, the permit for Dock 11 was issued to two outfitting companies.

The city said Alpine Aviation took over Dock 11 in 2015 “without informing or seeking permission from the city.”

The city said it responded by making a “concession” to Alpine Aviation in 2016 that allowed it to use Dock 11 temporarily in exchange for providing public parking on the site.

Alpine told the Star Monday it has kept one space open at Dock 11 for transient traffic – including travellers, private entrepreneurs and outfitting companies – as a service dock and tie-up space.

This year, the city is able to provide public plane parking on its own lease site operated by Alkan Air, rendering Alpine’s service on this no longer necessary and freeing up Dock 11 for the next person on the waitlist.

The city updated Alpine’s business permit last March to request the space be ready for the new permit holder on Aug. 28.

This morning, the city clarified that Alpine Aviation is not necessarily required to evacuate the dock.

“The permit condition requires modification to their dock extension or for them to produce a sharing arrangement with next (sic) person to acquire site 11 by Aug. 28,” city communications manager Myles Dolphin told the Star via email.

“If this was complied with, Alpine Aviation could continue using the site till the end of the 2019 permit season.”

According to Alpine Aviation owner Gerd Mannsperger, the city’s timeline is misleading. He added that sharing Dock 11 is what led to the dispute in the first place.

Mannsperger said that one of the outfitters who took over Dock 11, Lone Wolf Outfitters (now Anchor Bar Outfitting), had an agreement with Alpine Aviation to share the dock space. That’s because the outfitting company didn’t own an aircraft.

The agreement led them to join Docks 11 and 12 together, forming the larger dock space that the city is now requesting Alpine modify.

“The main reason was security,” Mannsperger said. “Everybody had to enter from the Alpine Aviation side onto the dock.”

Joining the two docks meant the space could host three aircraft, Mannsperger added. When they were separate, they could only host two.

“It worked out really good for everyone,” Mannsperger said. “Of course, the city was not overly impressed that we did that.”

Shortly afterward, Mannsperger met with Pat Ross, the city’s land and building services manager, and Anchor Bar Outfitting representative Derek Parsons.

It was at this point that Alpine Aviation was given use of Dock 11 in return for providing public dock parking services.

According to Mannsperger, Alpine had no idea the agreement for use of Dock 11 was temporary.

“All of a sudden, they (the city) are reneging on that agreement and pulling Dock 11,” Mannsperger said.

“They put the gun to our head, and said ‘sign it (the new permit) or leave it and do not operate.’”

The city planned for a final inspection of Alpine Aviation’s dock this morning to check that the terms of the new permit were being abided.

However, the inspection was cancelled after Alpine put a call out for support on social media, requesting the public attend the inspection in protest of the city’s treatment.

The city told Mannsperger the inspection had been indefinitely postponed out of fear that public attendance would create a safety hazard, due to limited parking at the pull-out.

The dispute over dock space at Schwatka Lake is long-standing.

Mannsperger said he believes the city’s mismanagement is to blame for the mounting demands for space.

In 2016, the city implemented a new permitting policy that required the “dock holder name, plane registration and insurance (dock and plane) must match.”

The city told the Star this morning that since Anchor Bar Outfitting didn’t own a plane, it was unable to maintain the dock permit and share the space with Alpine Aviation, leading to the new agreement.

“It’s just since they tried to regulate it that it’s become a valuable commodity,” he said.

In the past, Mannsperger explained, dock owners would regularly share dock space with plane operators.

Now, dock owners are afraid to give away their space – knowing it would take several years to secure it again.

The city confirmed Monday that the waitlist for dock space on Schwatka Lake currently has 18 people on it, five of them operating commercial businesses. 

Mannsperger reiterated that he hopes to see the city move forward on the 2015 Schwatka Lake Plan.

“Let’s work together to make this a better place, and move forward on the 2015 plan. That would alleviate all the fighting,” Mannsperger told the Star Monday.