City councillors frustrated
Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Dec 08/00) - Disjointed, lacking direction, a seamless monolith closed to council and public input -- these are all terms used to describe this year's city budget process.
This process has created small rifts between councillors and prompted calls for a scrapping of the current system.
At next Monday's council meeting the now-maligned 2001 draft budget will be tabled with the mandate from council that administration find $100,000 in order to provide more funding for special grants and the contingency fund.
Where that money will come from is uncertain. Administration is tight-lipped about possibilities and councillors' opinions range from cutting major capital projects to cutting council's travel expenses and meetings with free lunches and dinners.
The budget ordeal, which is now going into its third week and could stretch to a fourth, has frustrated some councillors who say the process is closed to their input and discussions feature too much wheel spinning.
"I've thought all along that (the process) has been disappointing," said Coun. Dave Ramsay.
"The budget process is streamlined and has taken decision-making out of our hands," he said adding, "what's happening now is a backlash against something council did in 1997-98 when they rushed to streamline."
Ramsay accuses some councillors of using scare tactics to keep the status quo.
"They're always saying the sky is falling," said Ramsay. "They're saying services are going to be cut (in an attempt to hold the line) but nothing drastic is going to happen."
Ramsay added that come Monday's meeting he'd like to see some capital projects scrapped as a way to come up with the $100,000 and save the city some money on top of that.
Coun. Robert Hawkins also said the process has frustrated him. Hawkins said he met with councillors Dave McCann, Wendy Bisaro, and Alan Woytuik after last Thursday's budget committee meeting to draft Monday night's motion that the budget be deferred.
"We were disappointed, we felt council flew through the budget," said Hawkins, "we decided to hash things out."
But the motion has created tension within council. Some don't see the point of belabouring the budget issue.
"I don't think it was a useful exercise, I don't think it was worthwhile," said Coun. Kevin O'Reilly.
"I won't be in favour of anything that resembles a cut to an existing program or service," he added.
Despite the disagreements all councillors agree that next year's budget process will be different. Discussions surrounding a mid-summer wish list from administration and using surveys and public focus groups to garner taxpayers concerns have already surfaced.
"The way the process is set up the only time the public has input is at the end," said Coun. Alan Woytuik.
"There needs to be more input at the beginning."
