SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Council voted to provide $25,000 to the NWT Disabilities Council for support staff to the city's summer day camp program on Feb. 13.

Councillors Rebecca Alty, Niels Konge and Steve Payne voted against providing the funding without a competitive process to select the recipient.

"I think that as a council we all agree that the disabilities council provides great service to a sector of our population that needs the services.

But this is the second time that we have sort of ad hoc provided funding," said Konge at the council meeting on Monday.

Last year, after the city reduced a grant to the NWT Disabilities Council, $25,000 was inserted into the budget to hire trained workers for the municipality's summer day camp programs. But there seemed to be confusion at the Feb. 6 municipal services committee meeting over whether that money was to be spent by the city's administration or given directly to the NWT Disabilities Council.

"Instead of being behind the eight ball all the time we need to get in front of it," said Konge.

NWT Disabilities Council executive director Denise McKee addressed council on Monday to ask that they skip the expression of interest stage in the interest of time. While that process would enable other groups to put themselves forward for the funding, it would also mean the money wouldn't be allocated until the end of March.

"I am asking you to understand that there is an implication and there is an impact in our program, as well as families who have been waiting," said McKee, adding that potential staff members are also waiting to confirm there is funding to hire them.

"So any delay in that, and any kind of difficulty that a parent would have to sustain would be an undue hardship to the family."

With or without the city funding, McKee said the Disabilities Council intends to provide camp programs.

"We do have additional funding, you're not our sole fund for that program," she told council. "We don't have any real difficulty in the belief that we don't believe we'll be the successful proponent. There is no other organization that has our history or our expertise to be able to deliver this service."

Councillor Adrian Bell agreed.

"Frankly I haven't heard from anybody else that's interested in this," he told council. "I understand Councillor Konge and others' concerns with respect to transparency and following our rules and making sure that we do everything in a certain way and we're fully accountable for our expenditures. In this instance though, I'm not concerned that this is setting a precedent. I think this is a somewhat extraordinary circumstance."

Councillor Linda Bussey was also on board with the funding for this year, but agreed changes in the process will be needed in future.

"We all know that (the NWT Disabilities Council) is the only ones that offer the program. I think putting another burden of time is not fair," she said. "I do think that next year we have to look at this differently to make sure that we do have a transparent process in place."

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