Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sept 05/01) - It's all about stretching the shareholder's dollar to the max.

That's the crux of Coun. Dave McCann's philosophy for running the city.

McCann, who spent 12 years as a planner for the territorial government two decades ago, said he's at odds with the way governments tend to run finances.

"I became disenchanted with a lot of waste (during the government stint)," said McCann.

"I insist upon value for Yellowknifers," said McCann.

McCann wants city administration to give councillor's "real-time performance measures" on a quarterly basis so waste can be curtailed. The performance measures would indicate how much a service is used compared to how much it's paid for.

McCann recently injected his agenda of efficiency into council's goals and objectives for their term.

McCann said city hall has traditionally not focused on performance and he wants to change that, but it will take some time and work.

"It's like trying to turn an aircraft carrier," said McCann. "Even though you turn the wheel all the way around, it won't turn immediately." McCann wants a one per cent savings in the budget but city hall's mindset has to change for that to happen.

"We seem to have a lot of reasons to spend money but few occasions to identify savings," said McCann.

McCann wants city hall to run more like a corporation and the only difference he sees between the public and the private sphere is that taxpayers can't sell their shares.

"It's a big business with a $32 million budget," said McCann.

McCann wants more reporting on the performance of departments so the city can gauge where it's money is being wasted.

"There should be no sacred cows," said McCann about the prospect of cutting services that are big money losers.

"We should be measuring client uptake and if we notice a fall off in interest we should look at the possibility of shutting it down," said McCann.

McCann said moving the budget in the direction of increased savings without raising taxes will force the city to be more creative.