Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 26/99) - The friendly unofficial approach did not work, so the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce has gone public with its dissatisfaction with city council.

In the spring the chamber began a quiet, behind-the-scenes campaign to get council to prepare a list showing what cuts were required to trim taxes by 10 per cent next year.

"I haven't had a lot of victories and successes with the other method, so we'll go with this one," said John Williston at the start of a presentation to council Monday night.

Repeating a call for council to consider taking the same belt-tightening measures a number of businesses have had to take, Williston said, "I've had a number of them tell me 'Business is down 30-40 per cent in the last 3-4 years and I can't afford to raise my prices 30-40 per cent.'"

Williston noted the chamber was not demanding a tax cut from the city, but wanted to know what sacrifices needed to be made to achieve it -- "I think that is a very appropriate and fair thing to ask for," he said.

The majority of council disagreed.

"Why would we ask city administration to propose cuts that are going to affect services to members of the community?" asked Coun. Ben McDonald. He argued politicians, not city staff, are responsible for making such decisions.

But Williston maintained city managers know best where money can be cut. He used his own business, Subway, as an example.

"It would be inappropriate for someone to come in, if business was down, and tell me where to cut costs if they didn't have any experience in the food industry."

Williston, the chairman of the chamber's municipal affairs committee, said city council shook public confidence of business people when it "reacted" to the bankruptcy of Giant mine owner Royal Oak by hiking property taxes.

"The way they did it, it was just, like, a knee-jerk reaction," he later said.

"I think this is a pretty good administration here and they do good work, but they do what they are told.

"The mayor and council are kind of missing the psychological downtrodden feeling people are experiencing," he said.

"Let's take a real honest look at it, and don't tell me we have to shut the pool down," he added, alluding to an example offered by the mayor of the type of service cuts needed to achieve the tax cut.

Williston pointed out a list of cuts that need to be made to reduce spending by five per cent and 10 per cent already exists. Council ordered administration to make up the list during debate of the 1999 budget to help it deal with the prospective closure of one or both mines.

The list arose at a Nov. 8 meeting, when Coun. Bob Brooks, who supported the chamber's request, said the list should be made public. He said releasing the list would dampen public appetite for a tax cut.

But the councillor who suggested the lists be prepared said they should not be released.

"The exercise we went through ... was for our education, so we could use that to do it ourselves," said Coun. Robert Slaven.