SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - City councillor David Wind surprised council on Monday when he voted against the terms of reference for the Smart Growth Implementation Committee, saying the long-term development scheme should be a council responsibility and not that of some committee.

Wind pointed to the 50-year horizon of the project and the "billions of dollars" of investments required over that time to fund it.

"It's my position that no matter how you tweak the membership of a committee, it's not nearly as representative of the interest of the community-at-large as council is," said Wind.

"So with the size of this initiative and the money that's to be spent, I would much prefer to have council take a direct role in overseeing the implementation of the recommendations of Smart Growth."

Couns. Shelagh Montgomery, Cory Vanthuyne, Bob Brooks and Mark Heyck voted in favour of the proposed makeup of the committee, saying it's important to involve the public.

The 13-member committee will include members of council, the Yk Chamber of Commerce, Ecology North and members of the public-at-large.

Wildlife talk

City council received a presentation on the new proposed NWT Wildlife Act Monday. The updated act will, among other things, reduce the residency requirement to hunt to one year from two years, abolish general hunting licences and will increase fines for violating the act to a maximum of $50,000 from the current limit of $10,000.

Adam Vivian from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said the next step for the department is to discuss the bill in every community in the Northwest Territories.

"We're meeting with aboriginal governments, we're meeting with regulatory boards, public, resident hunters and other stakeholders and we're accumulating all the comments on the bill, which we will take to our last group meeting in January," he said.

City councillor Cory Vanthuyne commended the department for the inclusion of a five-year review, which will make it easier to fix things that aren't working in the act.

Green gas funding

Council unanimously passed a resolution to access more than $4.5 million in federal gas tax revenues for 2010-2011.

The money provides funding for developing environmentally sustainable municipal infrastructure that results in cleaner air, cleaner water and/or reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem said the money has been and will continue to go towards sewer replacement projects in the city.

"Gas tax has allowed (the project) to continue and expand a bit," he said.

The city has been receiving gas tax revenues since 2005. The new agreement extends gas tax funding until 2013-2014.

Each year, the city will receive more than $4.5 million, for a total of more than $18 million over the next four years.

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