Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 11/99) - Two councillors who just returned from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities annual conference say the exercise was well worth the cost to city taxpayers.

"I found it a very valuable experience..." said Coun. Kevin O'Reilly.

He said there were 1,700 delegates at the June 3-8 conference, held in Halifax, N.S.

Coun. Robert Slaven said he returned with 10 pages of written notes and nine kilograms of printed material.

Slaven and O'Reilly returned to Yellowknife Tuesday night. The remaining four councillors -- Ben McDonald, Peggy Near, Bob Brooks and Cheryl Best -- are returning within a week.

All are required to file reports on their trips as well as lists of their expenses. The total tab for the trip will be known when those reports are submitted to the city's financial, legislative and administrative committee.

"There was tons of stuff," said Coun. Robert Slaven. "There were lots of times when there was four different things going on at the same time, so we made sure to try to cover everything as much as possible."

Slaven said that for the second year in a row, Yellowknife was held up as an example of a "Smart Community" meaning one that's using computer technology to provide better service.

He said one of the things he will be following up on is a way to get a piece of a $60-million pie unveiled at the conference by Industry Canada.

The department is making the money available over the next three years for municipalities -- one from each province, one from the territories and one aboriginal community -- to increase their efficiency and service through the use of high technology.

"One of the things we're going to do is sniff around and ask if anybody has any neat ideas that could convince the feds to part with five million bucks," said Slaven.

The decision to send six councillors to the conference was criticized by some residents and members of council. Coun. Dave Ramsay, originally scheduled to go, withdrew from the trip to protest sending six members.

His seat was later filled by Cheryl Best.