INUVIK - The mayor of Inuvik will keep his full-time salary after council rejected a motion to change the position back to part time at a special council meeting on Aug. 5.

In a 3-2 vote, council opted to maintain the status quo and reject the motion brought forward by councillors Vince Brown and Jim McDonald. Reducing the mayor's job to part time would save the town about $40,000 annually.

Both stated at the meeting that there isn't enough work for the mayor to support a full-time position, especially with the delay in the Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline project.

"I truly don't believe that it's a full-time position," said McDonald. "I don't have anything personal against the mayor or anything. I don't think that (the pay decrease) would affect the quality of the candidate. We could open it up for businesspeople and other people that could devote some time to it. The workload isn't there for a full-time position"

McDonald suggested the $40,000 could be put to better use in the community.

Councillors Brian McDonald, Clarence Wood and Deputy Mayor Chris Larocque voted to keep the mayor's pay as is. Councillors Terry Halifax, Grace Loreen and George Doolittle were not present at the meeting.

Mayor Derek Lindsay opted out of the vote, citing a conflict of interest as he intends to vie for the mayor's job again in October's municipal election.

Laroque said he visits the mayor's office regularly and that Lindsay is always occupied with mayor-related duties, ranging from taking calls from residents to activities related to promoting the town. He added the environmental assessment on the proposed Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline could come at any time and the town would need a full-time mayor to deal with the expected boom in economic activity.

Coun. Clarence Wood said even without the pipeline, Inuvik needs a full-time mayor and a salary that would attract a strong candidate.

"We need a full-time presence to not only promote the community but to try to get things off the ground," he said. "If we go back to a part-time position we're regressing. It's the wrong time to do it."

He pointed to other struggling communities such as Yellowknife and Tuktoyaktuk which still have full-time mayors.

Lindsay said he was pleased by the result of the vote, though he said he would still have "probably" run again for the mayor's job if council had decided to cut the salary in half.