Wednesday, December 8, 2004
In 1999, City Hall decided Yellowknifers needed to pay 3.7 per cent more because of revenue the city lost due to the bankruptcy of Giant Mine. Council went along with the increase. A few months later, however, finances were in such great shape, council was able to roll the tax increase back two per cent.
In subsequent years, there was talk of tax increases, but each time it was beaten back, this year thanks to a GST rebate from the federal government. It was the right decision.
The ghost is back again this year, moaning that taxes need to go up 2.85 per cent in 2005, with similar increases for 2006 and 2007, because of falling mine tax revenue and increasing costs.
Sorry Mr. Ghost, but why?
According to the city's draft 2005 budget, the assessed value of private and government property in Yellowknife has grown by more than $200 million since 1999. Taxation revenue has increased by 15 per cent.
Mayor Gord Van Tighem, in cahoots with City Hall, likes to brag there has been no tax increase since 1999. Yet, there is no question Yellowknife homeowners are paying more tax. Every year the city reassesses property values and homeowners pay more to City Hall.
Tax revenue from mines is expected to drop 18.2 per cent, to $735,000, next year. But that's still higher than the $728,000 the city budgeted to receive in 2000.
Between 2000 and 2005, however, city expenditures have increased by 43 per cent. Salaries and benefits have been a major force, rising about 28 per cent in four years. City staffing is projected to hit 180.1 full-time equivalent jobs in 2005, up from 167.14 in 2000.
It's time to ask: has city government grown faster than Yellowknifers can afford? That's especially important at this point, because mine tax revenue is only going to keep falling.
That must be foremost on people's minds Dec. 13 when city council holds a special 6 p.m. meeting to hear comments on the budget. Take note, you have to call the city clerk by noon Monday to make sure you can stand up and have your say.
Some would have us believe the cost of running the second ice sheet at the Multiplex is to blame, even though it will only cost about $200,000 more a year to run.
Others warn that services will have to be cut if there's no increase.
At this point, the budget is only a draft. A tax increase is just talk. In short, it's like the Christmas wish list parents get from their kids each December. Kids know they're not going to get everything on their list.
Council must play Scrooge and make administration work for every new penny in taxes and user fees. It's council's job to listen to Yellowknifers and provide a level of government taxpayers can afford.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
Aren't numbers fun?
People who use them for a living, especially those involved in the colourful world of public relations -- read: spin doctors -- have known for quite some time that numbers can say pretty much anything you want them to.
Numbers speak their own language and, by themselves, don't come close to telling the whole story.
A perfect example of numbers in action comes from two separate surveys conducted in Canada recently that drew immediate responses from Northerners.
The first showed less than 30 per cent of Canadians believe improving the quality of life for aboriginals is a high priority right now.
Now, as you can imagine, this prompted an immediate outcry from a number of Nunavummiut.
The opinions voiced ranged from southern Canadians knowing more about conditions in Iraq than in the North, to they just don't give a damn about us up here.
While the opinions varied in their context, they all had one common underlying theme -- that of ignorance.
If southern Canadians truly understood more about the conditions in many Northern communities, they'd want to do more to help.
In short, they don't think the North is a priority because they don't know any better.
The other survey had those more vocal among us singing a completely different tune because it showed Northerners to be the happiest of all when it comes to the health care they receive.
Can you imagine?
Making it clear
Now, let me make one thing perfectly clear: we, in no way, shape or form, mean to downplay the significant contributions made by our doctors and nurses, who are among the most dedicated and hardest working in Canada.
That being said, do you really believe there is any other reason behind a survey result such as this other than plain old-fashioned ignorance as to what top-notch health care is really like?
Could you imagine the public reaction in Ottawa if word leaked out a hospital's or clinic's X-ray technician was also its janitor?
While you're giggling over that concept, keep in mind that has been the case here in the Kivalliq.
Dangerous language
These polls, questionnaires and surveys are far from being an exact science.
And, while they're sometimes fun and mildly interesting to read, they are not to be taken too seriously.
The Nunavut government should be careful not to pat itself on the back too loudly over the great job this survey shows it's doing with the delivery of health care.
There just might be someone with their hands on the purse strings in Ottawa looking at those same numbers and concluding since people up here are so happy with the health care they're receiving, it's probably time to shift focus to somewhere else in the country.
Such is the danger of listening too closely to the language numbers often speak!
Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum
The inane CBC contest to determine the "Greatest Canadian" has finally, and thankfully, come to a close. Interesting that while our health care system lies in a precarious state, viewers voted Tommy Douglas -- "father of Medicare" -- to the top of the heap.
Those searching for some kind of redeeming quality for the entire charade -- as noted by Douglas proponent George Stroumboulopoulos of MuchMusic fame -- could point out that before the contest probably not too many people in the country even knew who the guy was.
On the flip side, those searching for an excuse to criticize the exercise don't have to look very far.
No women were included in the top-ten and there was no representation from the Aboriginal community, either. An explanation for the first is perhaps that women are too sensible to take part in such a contest (keep in mind rock'em sock'em Don Cherry did make the top ten).
Reasons for the latter are probably a combination of the fact most Canadians don't know much of the history of our First Nations and the likely possibility that most aboriginal people couldn't give a toss about participating in a somewhat exclusive popularity contest.
Canada has only been in existence since 1867 and arguably the best-known candidate of aboriginal descent - Louis Riel - was executed less than 20 years later by the government, which was led by "Greatest Canadian" number eight, Sir John A. Macdonald. Incidentally, Sir John placed below Don Cherry.
But enough about the Greatest Canadian, or lack thereof. We have bigger things to be concerned about, such as pipeline or no pipeline, President George Bush igniting a new arms race, very nearly right over our heads with his missile defence scheme, and getting our community's homeless people sheltered for the coming winter.
Maybe CBC North should do a series called The Greatest Problem Facing the NWT. Certain to be a hit, we could start the betting now as to where Herb Norwegian and the pipeline woes would fall, compared with a lack of affordable housing, lack of skilled Northerners to take advantage of coming and available jobs, and the lack of money to pay for it all. And we haven't even touched on substance abuse and other social problems.
Pipeline proponents go on about the bounty to be had with the project -- which is becoming more tentative each passing moment with Bush back in the White House and itching to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The politicians tell us we need a better revenue-sharing agreement to really tap into the treasure.
It's strange that supposedly there's all this money out there at the end of some tubular steel rainbow and in the meantime, plenty of bucks to buy fancy swimming pools and build hotels here and there, yet Samuel Hearne secondary school still doesn't have a foyer roof, let alone a functioning library.
Yes, we've got a lot of problems and since so many tuned in to The Greatest Canadian, maybe a boob-tube series highlighting what ails this territory and region might tune some others in -- particularly those with the power to make changes -- to take care of business.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
Fort Simpson's mayor is ready to stick it to Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA).
If council passes a budget forecasting a three-quarter million dollar shortfall, there's no way the community is going to recover that deficit by the next fiscal year as stipulated in MACA's regulations.
Mayor Raymond Michaud is making a stand. He said he's aware that if the municipality gets mired in deep financial trouble it could eventually mean that he and council will be relieved and MACA will appoint an administrator to take over on an interim basis. It has happened in other NWT communities.
But what else is he to do? The department has been cutting and slashing away at the village's budget over the past few years. How can the village not feel the pinch with the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars?
Several ministers have been told repeatedly that the department's funding formula simply doesn't work for Fort Simpson, a tax-based community of only 1,200 and precious little tax revenue.
The point was lost on some ministers. Others seemed sympathetic, but sympathy doesn't pay the bills. MACA has failed to do anything significant about the overall situation. Sure, the department has periodically come through with extra dollars that weren't initially projected in the budget -- that has helped and it may happen again next year.
However, in the bigger picture, MACA has only committed to a comprehensive study of its entire funding formula, an analysis that's going to take at least another year, if not longer. There's no guarantee that Fort Simpson is going to come out any farther ahead at the end.
It's true that council didn't do itself any favours by accumulating a substantial surplus last year. That restraint has helped keep the ship afloat this year, but it seems inevitable that from this point forward the municipality will take on more water than it can bail.
The mayor is steadfastly refusing to raise taxes or water rates. Such measures would generate more revenue, but Fort Simpson residents already pay an ample amount for those things.
The village must assume guilt for not instituting and enforcing user fees in certain situations -- the community hall rental is often waived for "good causes." But even if council took a hard line on that, to what end would it serve? Non-profit groups would suffer and the profit generated for the municipality would be modest at best. There may be work to do on that front, but it's not the answer to this problem.
Council is looking at returning to hamlet status as refuge from the budget crunch, but even that option isn't a sure thing. A study will spell out the details in a few weeks, but MACA may not permit the unprecedented move of having a community take a step down in status.
The mayor is ready to fight. Are you ready to support him?
Premier Joe Handley was acting in his role as MLA for Weledeh when he got involved in a school issue in his riding ("Distraught over schooling," Yellowknifer, Dec. 3).