Wednesday, November 22, 2000
Sandwiched in between the high-minded words about a "caring, compassionate and consistent approach" and the rationale behind the city's capital spending plans are a lot of big numbers.
It's the City of Yellowknife's 2001 provisional budget, calling for revenues of $34,416,000 and expenditures of $31,618,000.
To a business, those numbers are the bottom line; to city council, it should be much more than that.
The figures represent money collected from Yellowknifers through taxes and user fees, and what it spends to provide key services to city residents.
Council's job is to find the balance between spending and taxes.
For example, council must justify to the electorate why a temporary lift station to open up the second phase of Niven Lake lots is a wise expenditure when city groups are asking for an increase in block funding and the amount of special grants for them is being cut in half.
Why commit $250,000 a year to Smart Communities -- a computer network project -- when there's little budgeted for one of council's long-stated priorities, waterfront development?
Council should also take a deep look at its involvement in land development, especially when a "highlight" of the year was a "500 per cent" increase in sales of Niven Lake lots -- six in all. That one development alone has resulted in increasing city debt by $3.1 million, a situation MACA has warned will "negatively impact the overall operations of the city." And the city will take five years to get its land development fund out from under a $1.1 million deficit.
All this comes when tax growth is projected to be less than one per cent.
Already, Coun. Ben McDonald is saying another tax increase may be necessary. Mayor Van Tighem says that should only be council's last resort -- a sentiment we endorse.
Instead, they need to get out their calculators, talk to the people about what the real priorities are, and make sure what is spent is spent wisely.
You won't want to miss this one: Team NWT versus Team Alaska/Yukon.
Onside for Team NWT are Premier Stephen Kakfwi, Western Arctic MP Ethel Blondin-Andrew and RWED Minister Joe Handley.
And for Team Alaska/Yukon: Yukon Premier Pat Duncan, Alaska Governor Tony Knowles, and Alaskan Senators Ted Stevens and Frank Murkowski, chair of the U.S. Senate Energy Committee which will make the decision.
But don't place any bets on this battle for the pipeline as the former fourth member of Team NWT, Prime Minister Jean Chretien, slithered from the ring last week when he predicted the victors.
"They have virtually no choice but to take the gas of Alaska through the Yukon to market..." said Chretien.
Now who is going to invest more time and money into the Mackenzie Valley pipeline route after our nation's top leader shows support for the other side. Does he know something we don't?
With the snow comes snowmobiles and with those comes letters to the editor regarding snowmobile safety.
One such letter appeared in Yellowknifer last week which is earlier in the season than normal. The author was still shaken from a near collision with a snowmachine illegally on a sidewalk last winter.
The letter writer wants people who have similar fears of being run down to write the editor or city council to get snowmachines off city streets.
The arguments for allowing snowmachines freedom of the streets are far outweighed by safety issues. The only factor that will delay such restrictions is the behaviour of snowmobilers themselves.
Jim MacDonald and the rest of the volunteers with the Rankin Inlet Minor Hockey Association shouldn't feel too bad about being somewhat misled by Community Government Minister Jack Anawak.
They are not alone.
Kivalliq News also greeted the good news concerning the promised pilot project of artificial ice with much aplomb this past summer.
Oh how we gushed about the good minister for finally recognizing the social implications of a healthy hockey program in the Kivalliq region. Our MLA finally comes through with a campaign promise we crowed.
Well, here it is five months later and the project is on par with our new health station.
Maybe the Nunavut Government has decided to wait until the road linking us to Manitoba is completed so transportation costs won't be quite so high for the materials involved.
To date, in Rankin Inlet and most of the Kivalliq, the Nunavut Government's talk of strong initiatives to help our youth has amounted to nothing more than lip service.
Yes, there have been instances, such as the Department of Education's contribution to the solid Nunavut Youth Abroad project, where the NG has provided some funding to help out people at the local level doing the lion's share of the work.
And these contributions are greatly appreciated.
Yet, with our problems of youth suicides, crime, high drop-out rates and overall feelings of hopelessness towards a bright future, we can't understand why the NG isn't doing all it can to provide our youth with healthy environments.
The type of healthy environment sporting programs provide.
The lack of ice also prevents our sporting heads from providing top-notch instruction to our local coaches and referees.
Without that instruction, our local volunteers lack confidence in their own teaching abilities and are not able to provide our youth with the direction they need to improve their skills.
Minister Anawak couldn't free up five minutes to talk with us during his recent visit to Rankin Inlet.
However, I was told by a reliable source the minister would be calling me this week to discuss the artificial ice situation in Rankin.
I was also informed that Rankin would be "very happy" with the upcoming news.
Hopefully, our good minister will forgive me if I'm not sitting by the phone holding my breath.