Terry Kruger
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 07/00) - Saying public transit is too expensive to be funded from property taxes alone, Yellowknife city council is preparing to ask the NWT Association of Municipalities to endorse a call for using fuel tax to help pay the way.

Voting their conscience Members of city council will be voting their conscience when they consider resolutions at the May 26-28 NWT Association of Municipalities convention. And that could include voting against city-sponsored ones. Coun. Cheryl Best asked the question of whether or not the city's delegates to the NWTAM in Fort Simpson should vote as a block in support of their own resolution when council met in its weekly Priorities, Planning and Budget committee. A number of resolutions will be put to council Monday night. "Once council approves the resolutions (and they) go to the NWTAM, do we vote as a block?" asked Best. If not, "then why do we bring these forward? "If Yellowknife city council approves the resolutions, it's the will of council that these things are brought forward." She proposed council consider drafting a policy to guide how city representatives vote. There wasn't much support for her position. "We should go with an open mind," said Coun. Ben McDonald. "To bind us to vote for the narrowness of a motion within our own little conclave is irresponsible." Coun. Blake Lyons agreed with Best's intent but did consider such a policy would amount to "censorship." It comes down to a simple question, added McDonald. "Do the people represent council or represent the community?" he said. "If they represent the community, they can vote their conscience. "We've got no jurisdiction for saying how to vote."

It's one of a number of issues council will consider as resolutions to be forwarded to the NWTAM convention May 26 to 28 in Fort Simpson.

The resolutions came before council members this week in committee, and they will be back on the table when council holds its regular meeting Monday at 7 p.m.

The fuel tax issue saw the most discussion as councillors went through two different resolutions.

The first called for the NWTAM to lobby the territorial government to implement a one cent per litre fuel surtax in communities which operate a transit system.

Those monies could then be transferred to the local municipal government to subsidize cost of running a transit system.

It didn't get much support, with Coun. Blake Lyons saying it "would give the wrong message" during a time when the public is already concerned about the high price of gas.

Coun. Alan Woytiuk agreed.

"I am definitely opposed to (the resolution). This is the wrong time for something like this," he said.

"I think it's the wrong direction to go to start increasing the taxation ability of municipalities."

The second resolution would call on the GNWT to "transfer gasoline taxes collected within a municipality to that municipality for the purpose of subsidizing efficient and affordable public transit..."

Council members voted 4-3 to delete a sentence from that resolution that would allow municipalities to implement their own gas taxes for transit.

Coun. Ben McDonald said the message that this move would bring is that "the consumption of natural resources is not free."

"Give the money back to us so we can use it to subsidize our transportation system," said Lyons, adding that communities that are not on the NWT road system pay a lower gas tax.

Other resolutions

A resolution to change the Local Authorities Elections Act would add some of the territorial rules into city votes.

Those changes would include limits on use of voters' lists, requirement for candidates to report campaign contributions and individual contributions of $100 or more and prohibition of candidates from signing pledges to carry out certain actions if elected or to resign if called upon.

Another resolution would see support for allowing a candidate to be nominated for both mayor and councillor positions.

While it is allowed in some hamlets where there are fewer candidates for election, Mayor Dave Lovell said this move could create problems on city council.

"I don't particularly like this because what it's doing is setting up an opposition (on council) for the mayor," he said.

Other proposed resolutions called for increased funding for tourism promotion, bottle deposits on non-alcoholic beverage containers, for renewed pressure to get federal funding for economic development, funding for accessible public transit and changing either the election date or a city's fiscal year end to give newly elected councils more time to prepare budgets.