SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The first formal debate among would-be councillors and mayors took place at city hall Thursday night, as candidates waded through a series of lengthy motions compiled by the event's organizer, Alternatives North.

City election debates began with mock council Thursday. Above, candidate Francis Chang accepts a number from a hat held by Karen LeGresley Hamre, indicating which round of the Alternatives North Forum he would be debating in. Behind him are fellow council candidates Bob Brooks (centre) and Rick Poltaruk. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo

The forum was broken up into three parts, with candidates picking from a hat to decide which motion they would debate. Some of the 16 council and three mayoral candidates grumbled after being told they weren't allowed to sit in council chambers and observe the debate while awaiting their turn.

Watching from the council gallery were - at its peak - around 35 voters, but only about half of them remained for the third and final motion - a three-parter on the need for more non-market housing. No questions were taken, nor requested from the floor throughout the evening.

The first painfully-worded motion asked seven candidates for council - Mark Heyck, Amanda Mallon, Paul Falvo, David McCann, Rick Poltaruk, Bob Brooks, and mayor candidate John Westergreen - to "adopt a set of measurable genuine progress indicators" with a call for a 10 per cent improvement by 2012, plus annual reports from council on the progress of these measures.

"It was an exercise in parliamentary procedure," commented resident Orest Watsyk, adding he found the first round of debates exceedingly dull while contributing little to informing the public about the candidates.

"It was soothing syrup," he said. "There are pressing problems that aren't being addressed at all, and when will they?"

The second round of debate centred on a motion to designate a single city councillor to "actively participate" in Women in Cities International - a network that encourages female participation in municipal planning and development. It went on to implore the city to direct the Department of Public Safety to complete a women's safety audit by December 2010, followed by an action plan to address identified concerns by 2011.

Participating in the event were council candidates Varick Ollerhead, Tara Kearsey, Shelagh Montgomery, Francis Chang, Cory Vanthuyne, and mayoral candidate Bryan Sutherland.

Kearsey, one of four women council candidates, wasted no time proposing that the council representative to Women in Cities International must be a woman, to which Chang replied: "I don't know if it has to be a woman. If people don't elect a woman, what do you do?"

Sutherland argued instead of a city councillor, a committee, such as the city's Smart Growth Committee, should form the delegation. After much debate, he eventually withdrew his amendment, while Kearsey's proposal - supported by only herself and Vanthuyne - was defeated.

The third and final motion, an 81-word, three-part statement, was debated by incumbent mayor Gord Van Tighem and council candidates Jeff Corradetti, David Prichard, Lydia Bardak, John Dalton and David Wind.

It asked the candidates to direct the city to hire a part-time contractor for up to $75,000 a year to set up a group to administer non-market housing (usually public housing, but also co-ops); for the group to assess the city's land potential for non-market housing; and to provide a $1 million interest-free loan for seed money for the group to go towards these homes.

All the candidates acknowledged the city needs more affordable housing but no one liked the motion as it was.

Bardak and Van Tighem said territorial law prevents the city from providing interest-free loans. Many agreed the motion overall was too specific and otherwise unworkable. The three-hour forum ended with no vote on the motion.

"Rather than get into the details about which colour the pipes should be, which way the walls should face, we should leave that to the professionals," said Van Tighem.

Moderator Shauna Morgan said the idea for the forum was to avoid a setting where candidates could fire off pat answers to questions. Alternatives North's poster for the event advertised: "No soapboxes, no sound bites - watch mayor and council candidates debate the issues in a mock council session."

Morgan acknowledged, however, that the debate, particularly with the first motion, was a bit abstract at times.

"I think we could've made it a little more specific in terms of laying out which genuine progress indicators we wanted them to focus on," said Morgan.

Meanwhile Sandra Lockhart, who monitored time limits to the candidate responses, said her one big disappointment was the lack of attention paid to aboriginal issues in the city by the candidates.

"It's just shocking to come into where we live and there is no recognition of First Nations," said Lockhart.