SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - After three hours perusing the draft 2011 budget, city council was unable to agree on any cuts to reduce the recommended 3.99 per cent tax increase Tuesday night.

City councillors David Wind, Paul Falvo and Cory Vanthuyne voted to axe council's $75,000 contingency fund, which exists for unforeseen expenditures, saying it's unnecessary.

Couns. Bob Brooks, Shelagh Montgomery, Mark Heyck, Lydia Bardak and Amanda Mallon voted against the motion.

Wind made the suggestion, saying he would rather meet the unexpected head-on than have a pot of money tempting council.

In 2010, the contingency fund was budgeted at $75,000, but council appears to have well exceeded that amount according to the most recent budget update, which estimates spending in the fund at $152,000.

Carl Bird, director of corporate services, told council the fund was used to help fund the day shelter, pay for combatting the landfill fire and the city's strategic plan - the basis of the 2011 draft budget.

Falvo acknowledged that there are always unforeseen costs and council can't control everything, but he said in those situations there are other options the city can pursue, like taking money from general operations or in an extreme case, borrowing.

"There doesn't need to be that contingency (fund) there if we are in a situation where we can't balance the budget without a seventh consecutive tax increase. We shouldn't be adding on extras," he said.

"I think that historically it was there so that councillors had a little slush fund so they could play with that and feel like they were doing something. That's not what council is there to do, though. We are there to give overall direction. We should leave that kind of accounting to administration," he said.

Brooks and Montgomery both spoke up in support of the contingency fund.

"The reason you have contingency funds is because you can't plan for everything," said Brooks.

"You may remember that this contingency fund used to be a heck of a lot bigger and we keep chopping it down. I'm not suggesting it should be going up to a higher level. I don't know that $75,000 is enough, however. I think it's low enough that we'll think twice about any kind of contingency spending that we have."

Brooks said he was more concerned about the addition of four city employees, which include a casual position for the Fieldhouse, a communications officer for the city, and a number of other casuals at the city's recreation facilities. He said it might be a potential spot to cut spending.

Council also discussed the future of the Wildcat Cafe, which has $500,000 budgeted for renovations.

Vanthuyne and Wind both spoke in support of putting the project on hold in order to find alternative funding sources.

Council will vote on the budget at city hall next Tuesday at 7 p.m.

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