Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The city is faced with a $74 million infrastructure gap and will need to spend $42.4 million over the next five years in order to keep up, according to a report tabled at city hall Monday.

Carl Bird, the city's director of corporate services, provided city council with an asset review presentation at a Municipal Services committee earlier this week reporting, among other items on its infrastructure wish list, $3.5 million in city hall renovations, $3 million for the expansion of the library, a $21-million water treatment plant and $1 million for the Ruth Inch Memorial Pool.

Bird's slide presentation, entitled Asset Management: A Way Forward for the City, also gave an overview of the methodology of assessing the value and condition of city assets such as roads, parks, and water and sewer facilities and where some of the broad short and long term challenges exist.

An evaluation was provided as to the condition of assets and how they were measured based on their need for upgrading or replacement. Bird's presentation reports that the infrastructure gap has risen to $74 million from $67.8 million in 2006.

Much of the presentation aimed to prepare council for budget discussions coming later this year.

"If we are not thinking to the future on things that are going to need replacement, we are going to potentially run into some problems down the road," Mayor Gord Van Tighem said.

He added that while figures still need to be reviewed in much more detail, Yellowknife's infrastructure challenges should be seen as being similar to those that other Canadian cities face, which require greater investment.

Discussion among council and staff dealt with the need to find new revenue sources to help address the gap. It was suggested in the presentation that the federal gas tax rebate be used for the corrugated metal piping replacement over the next five years at $5 million a year.

"One thing is for sure and that is that our roads are in need of great attention because there is obviously a lot of freezing and thawing and a lot of our roads are uneven or wavy as a result," said city councillor David Wind.

Wind said he felt that over the last term, water and sewer piping has been funded gradually but adequately and some of the challenges ahead include prioritizing larger items that should be funded immediately.

Some of the funding demands associated with a new water treatment plant, such as water changing and handling capability come from stricter requirements from the territorial government, and as such, the city remains responsible to find funding.

"We often hear that our water is the best in the world but we need to think about the urgency for building the water treatment plant," said Wind. "If water quality is really good, maybe we should see if other things have higher priority for other sources of government and see if they shouldn't make more contribution."

The terms of reference for an advisory committee have been made to look at a more thorough list of asset needs. The advisory committee will include the mayor, deputy mayor, senior administration staff as well as community business leaders. Van Tighem suggested that when the group is formed, more recommendations will be ready for council to review.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.