Funds for 50 Street chopped from budget
Council says more time needed to develop plan
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Friday, December 9, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
City council opted not to spend $1.9 million next year on projects along 50 Street during budget deliberations this week.
This is the second year in a row council has decided not to spend the funds to streetscape a portion of the street or build a plaza on the city-owned lot at the corner of 50 Street and 50 Avenue. The lot is currently being used as a parking area. Councillors expressed a need to spend more time developing a plan before spending money.
"We need to determine how we're proceeding," said Coun. Rebecca Alty, who moved the motion to cut the spending. Councillors voted unanimously in favour of the motion.
Coun. Adrian Bell said people want to see improvements to social issues downtown before spending to beautify the area.
The spending was expected to be the first phase of plans, with $2.1 million budgeted for 2018 and $750,000 in 2019.
The $1.9-million cut was the largest after two days going through the 355-page draft budget page by page.
By 10 p.m. on Wednesday, council had made it through the operations budget and partway through the capital budget.
By that time, they had opted to cut $75,000 for a strategic review, cut the cost of expansion of the Lakeview Cemetery in half to $105,000, cut $230,000 for re-siding the Ruth Inch Memorial Pool and cut $43,000 to buy tables and chairs that are rented out by the city.
Overall, the city ended discussions Wednesday with a projected 2.269 per cent tax rate increase. It's down from the 2.55 per cent included in the draft budget.
Thursday was expected to see council finish the capital budget and move on to a list of items proposed by council but not formally included in the budget. If fully implemented, the list was projected to result in a 10-per-cent tax rate increase.
About a dozen firefighters and representatives of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce watched on both Tuesday and Wednesday evenings as council went through the budget. The president of the firefighters union last week said he wants council to spend money to hire more firefighters.
Several motions were put forward Tuesday evening about the fire department to address burnout and under-staffing.
Coun. Shauna Morgan moved two related motions.
The first would increase the fee the city charges the GNWT for ambulances to deal with medevac patient transfers from $445 to $1,100.
"As I understand it, we're the only game in town in terms of transporting medevacs," Morgan said, adding initial calculations estimated the change could raise $1 million in revenue.
This revenue would in turn be used to fund her second motion to hire four more firefighters in July. It was estimated that could cost $180,000.
Those motions were expected to be considered again Thursday once staff had provided more information to council.
The draft budget included hiring two more emergency dispatch staff for the fire hall. Council heard the dispatch staff is stretched thin, making it hard to schedule vacations or even take bathroom breaks.
Bell moved a motion to delay that by four months and have the city consider other options for dispatch services, including privatization.
Coun. Linda Bussey asked if a delay or changes such as using a dispatch service based elsewhere would create risks for the city.
City director of public safety Dennis Marchiori said it would put the city at risk, pointing out there is a single fibre optic line serving the community and if severed, could impact the reliability of a dispatch centre based elsewhere.
"I don't know what else to tell you. You'd be putting residents at risk. Simple as that," Marchiori said.
The motion was also delayed pending further information.
On Tuesday, council was told the city has twice tried to secure a new vendor for the canteen at the Yellowknife Curling Club without success. It's cut into revenue from the club.
Morgan suggested the city renegotiate the arrangement the city has had with the club since 2009, which sees the city pay most of the costs of operations.
As discussion of the club continued, Coun. Niels Konge called on council to carry out an examination in the new year of the subsidies it provides to sports clubs.
"I firmly believe we should support youth sport, but it doesn't seem like we're doing that on a very level playing field," he said.
Budget deliberations were scheduled to wrap up Thursday with the document being formally approved Monday by council.
