SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The city's debt management plan has passed first reading, although one city councillor said he just about fell of his chair after reading its initial wording.

City councillor Bob Brooks was ultimately in favour of the plan, but said he "almost choked" when he read the original recommendation put forward by administration last week, which called on council to eliminate the need for voter approval on future borrowing.

Brooks missed last week's Municipal Services Committee meeting so he was unable to speak to the recommendation until Monday's committee meeting.

"When I first read the memo and didn't have a chance to speak to it - I saw the way it was written and I almost choked," he said.

"My feeling is if you don't get community buy-in on these major projects, then you're not going to be successful. So for these major projects you need the people to understand and be open to going ahead with it, otherwise it's doomed to failure," Brooks said on Wednesday.

The memo written by administration states: "Any debt entered into by the City of Yellowknife in the future will be authorized in a bylaw but this bylaw will not require voter or ministerial approval."

The memo came just a week after a referendum where voters rejected a city plan to borrow up to $49 million to build a community energy system that would've heated 39 downtown buildings.

Last Thursday, a senior city official told Yellowknifer that administration had misinterpreted the territorial government's Cities, Towns and Villages Act, which governs debt management plans, and voter approval will still be necessary for future borrowing.

Having heard that secondhand, Brooks asked administration to clarify how the plan would effect borrowing during this week's committee meeting. Following his request, there was silence as councillors waited for a response from Carl Bird, the city's director of corporate services.

"I'm waiting to be asked," said Bird. "I'm never giving a response unless I'm asked anymore."

Mayor Gord Van Tighem then told Bird to answer the question, who replied that any bylaw that doesn't meet the exemption criteria in the act will still have to go to a referendum.

Exemption can be given by the minister of Municipal and Community Affairs if he deems that the long-term debt is going toward the public interest, such as something needed to improve or maintain public health, the environment or public safety. The city would also be exempt if the amount to be borrowed were less than $250,000.

After the clarification, Brooks said he felt better about administration's intent.

"I was glad they cleared up the intent because it basically made me fall of my chair when I first read it, especially because the timing was so bad," he said.

"If the actual intent was to do what we thought it was saying, then you're basically saying we didn't like the way the public voted (in the Con Mine community energy system referendum), so we're not going to let them vote anymore.

"I think that's hugely bad timing, if that was the case. So I was quite pleased that that was not the case."

A debt management plan would lay out projects the city intends to borrow money for and how it intends to pay it back.

Brooks said the plan is important for the development of an asset management plan, which would identify the recommended investment in the city's infrastructure over the next 15 to 20 years and identify debt requirements, sources of revenue for investment and for debt servicing and plans for major facilities.

Second reading, including a public hearing, of the bylaw to establish a debt management plan will be in two weeks. If it's passed, the bylaw will go to MACA for ministerial approval before it returns to council for the final reading.

Couns. David Wind and Mark Heyck were absent for the first reading vote.

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