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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A motion to ask the territorial government for an extension on city council's deadline to pass the 2013 budget was defeated Monday 6-2, despite urgent appeals from two new councillors.

City councillor Adrian Bell presented a motion calling for an extension on budget deliberations at what was the first municipal services committee for the new council. According to the Cities, Towns and Villages Act, council is required by law to have its annual budget approved by Dec. 31, unless the minister of Municipal and Community Services grants council more time.

Only fellow rookie Coun. Phil Moon Son supported the motion.

City administration aims to have the $84.4 million budget - the largest ever presented to council - passed at the Dec. 10 regular meeting. Depending which councillor one is speaking with, this can been interpreted as either having "only three weeks" or "almost a whole month" to examine and approve the budget.

Bell tried making the case that council would be better representing the interests of the city by having an extra month to scrutinize the budget.

"We have big responsibilities here and residents want to know that the people they voted for are experts on the budget and also on the budgeting process generally," he said. "As you can tell from the questions around the room just now, we aren't even sure how to propose items for review.

"We have got three weeks to sort out not only which expenditures that we feel are justified, but how we go through the process of determining which expenditures are justified. It is a lot to learn in three weeks."

Coun. Bob Brooks, first elected in 1991, said Bell's request was typical of new councillors coming in, but said the document is a lot easier to digest than might be first assumed.

"Your questions are not out of line, it is in line, but I think it might be premature," said Brooks, while admitting that it is a big learning curve for new councillors.

Coun. Dan Wong argued a number of councillors are not "newbies at financial management" and are bringing enough experience to the job to pass the budget on time.

"The approach that we should be taking is 'let's get 'er done' and the vote 6-2 is pretty strong," he said. "Yellowknifers thought we could get this job done and we have so much experience collectively running businesses and managing budgets for organizations. There are some procedural things to work out like how to ask for budget amendments and day-to-day issues, but we can come up to speed on those very quickly."

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