The deadline is here for the removal of Whitehorse commercial highway signs that do not comply with the new standards implemented in 2006.

Rick Karp is the president of the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce. He said last week there is still time for business owners to enroll in the urban visitor sign program administered by the chamber on behalf of the Department of Highways and Public Works.

One way or the other, however, the older, non-compliant billboards will be removed in the next couple of months, Karp explained in an interview last week.

He said the new signage policy released in the fall of 2005 by Highways didn't sit all that well for the business community.

As part of a compromise, the chamber agreed to manage the new policy while the government agreed to provide and erect 50 new multi-sign structures, as well as hang new signs free of charge to the business up until March 31 of this year.

Under the May 2006 regulations, existing highway billboards were allowed to remain as they are until Jan. 1, 2008.

Karp said discussions between the chamber and government officials are underway to update the 2006 arrangement, using what they've learned under the new policy over the last 18 months.

There needs to be, for instance, a cost established for businesses wanting to relocate their signs.

Businesses are still able to take advantage of the free installation until the end of March, but space is limited and site selection diminishes with new business signs going up.

Of the 150 spaces available on the new sign structures at the south and north entrances to the city, 90 have been spoken for, he pointed out.

Karp said advertising opportunities were created under the new policy for businesses in the service sector like real estate companies which were not allowed to put up highway signs.

Previously, he pointed out, billboards were restricted to enterprises which provided lodging, food, gas and tourist attractions.

The allotment of new spaces for the service sector has been filled, though more could become available if those being held for the more traditional advertisers are not taken up, he said.

Karp said the chamber already has a waiting list of service businesses owners wanting to a reserve spot, but nothing will be released until well into the summer or even the fall.

After March 31, businesses wanting to put up a billboard will have to pay the cost of the new sign and installation, along with an annual $400 advertising and maintenance fee to the chamber.

In return, Karp explained, the chamber will administer the program and repair any minor problems or vandalism to the signs. Any major work, however, will be the responsibility of the business owner, he said.

(Many signs were defaced or cut down in a spree of vandalsim in the mid-1980s. The vandals then spraypainted the damaged fixtures with 'YLF' Yukon Liberation Front.)

The cost of installing a sign has not yet been determined, as the contract for the sign work will be put out to tender, though the Yukon government is currently paying its private contractor $300 to hang each marker.

Karp said changes to regulations evolved from concerns over the shrinking capacity along the highway corridor to provide for commercial signs and the desire to standardize signage and ensure proper maintenance.

There was a noticeable problem with business owners neglecting regular maintenance, Karp said.

'And those few who were keeping them up were spending a lot of money keeping them up,' he said. 'And the tourism people, and not just the Department of Tourism, but the people in the tourism business, said, Hey, this is a mess, and we have to do something about it.''

Going back a few years to his days as the owner of the Fourth Avenue McDonald's restaurant, which he opened in 1986, it was nothing to spend thousands of dollars on a large billboard, Karp said.

But with new computer sign technology and a standard 4 x 8 piece of plywood no bigger, no smaller what used to cost thousands now costs $300 to $400, he said.

While the new 2006 regulations provided for the urban visitor sign program for communities across the Yukon, Whitehorse is the first municipality to implement it so far.