Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Jun 15/01) - The NWT Association of Municipalities began its annual general meeting in Norman Wells Thursday. It ends June 17.
Representatives from 23 municipal governments along with several GNWT officials, including Premier Steven Kakfwi, are gathering to discuss a variety of issues affecting community governments.
"We had a huge increase in our municipal insurance premiums this year," said Blake Lyons, Yellowknife city councillor and association president.
Lyons explained that recent drinking water crises in Walkerton, Ont., and North Battleford, Sask., have had a huge impact on insurance premiums.
"There's been a large concern about water treatment across the country and that reflects on insurance costs," Lyons said.
Municipalities will also be looking into ways to recoup clean-up expenses from messy property owners who, according to Lyons, until now often get way with only paying a fraction of the cost.
"Right now, under our bylaw, when we go in and clean up a property there's no certainty that the charges the city incurs goes back to the property owner," Lyons said. "So we want something to attach to those charges."
One possibility being explored is to urge the territorial government to allow municipalities to transfer clean-up costs to property taxes at the end of the fiscal year. A major sticking point for municipalities in their fight with the territorial government for more jurisdictional powers has to do with access to the Motor Vehicle Information System.
Lyons said municipalities have a hard time collecting traffic and parking ticket fines because the data is currently only accessible by the territorial government.
"We have had access before and we want to make sure we continue to do so."
