Council to consider four-year terms
City looks at holding plebiscite to extend the terms of future councillors
Cody Punter
Northern News Services
Published Friday, March 14, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife's mayor says city council has no interest in extending their current term to avoid an election logjam in 2015.
The city is considering holding a plebiscite to extend the terms of future councillors to four years. If the public voted in favour of extending council's terms the changes would not apply until the 2018 election. - Daniel Campbell/NNSL photo |
However, councillors might soon have the opportunity to serve for an additional year in future elections.
According to Mayor Mark Heyck, council will soon be debating whether or not the city should hold a plebiscite during the next election to decide if future city councils should serve for four years instead of the current three.
"It's been noted by several councillors past and present that a three-year term really goes by quite quickly," said Heyck. "Especially when you have a lot of turnover on council - the first year (to) year-and-a-half is spent getting everyone up to speed with the issues. Before you know it you're into an election already."
When Yellowknifer asked city councillors what they thought about a plebiscite most said three years is already enough time in office.
"You can do a lot in three years," said Dan Wong. "In three years you can build a home from scratch, in three years the founding fathers developed Canadian confederation, and in three years a baby can learn to talk."
Niels Konge wrote in an e-mail "even if it was a 10-year commitment you would not get everything done. Why? Because objectives change, if they didn't we would not need a council."
Konge and Coun. Adrian Bell also said because being a city councillor is usually only one of several jobs for most people, extending the term to a four-year commitment might dissuade certain candidates from running for office.
Coun. Linda Bussey disagreed, pointing out that because most councillors usually have other jobs, they are not able to devote as much attention to council as they might like.
"The first year is a learning curve," she said. "By the third and fourth year you know how things work and you can really start to get things done."
The Cities, Towns and Villages Act, which applies to the six largest municipalities, including Yellowknife, states that council must hold their elections every three years on the third Monday in October.
However, in 2011, the territorial government amended its Local Authority Elections Act to allow all municipalities to change the length of their term - either by implementing a bylaw to shorten them or a by conducting a plebiscite to extend them to a maximum of four years.
Tom Williams, deputy minster for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, said Tulita used the changes in the legislation to increase the council terms by a year in 2011.
If the city were to hold a plebiscite during the next election and the public voted in favour of giving councillors four-year terms, those changes would not come into effect until the following term.
As such, the earliest point at which councillors could begin serving a four-year term would be 2018.
Regardless of what happens between now and the next election, voters will ultimately get the final say.
