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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
After three unsuccessful attempts at seeking a seat in the legislative assembly, Beaton MacKenzie is making a try for city council.

The special needs educator at Sir John Franklin High School says he has always held political ambitions, and if elected, will get to work on the complex issue of "public safety" in the downtown core. This would include putting pressure on the territorial government to have paroled convicts from the North Slave Correctional Centre returned to their home communities.

"All the businesses, they look at their costs, but they also look at the clientele who happen to walk off the street and may not be the most welcome patrons within the store," MacKenzie said.

"The thing that the city should take a stand on and make a policy - if they must - when an inmate is released from their sentence they have the choice to stay in (Yellowknife) if they get a pass from their directors. If they don't get a pass from the director, they must take up residency in their home community."

While the decision on where to "place" parolees doesn't fall under the city's jurisdiction but rather the territorial government's Department of Justice, according to MacKenzie, the city has an "option to make a request but we (the city) would just make a statement, 'You don't have an option, that you must go back to your home community.'"

In addition to addressing social issues, a "responsible fiscal budget" is needed in order for the city to continue to thrive, said MacKenzie.

"(To) address the needs of the community such as the infrastructure, our streets, our sewer lines, our roads and putting structures in to make the Frame Lake Trail better and safer," he said.

"A lot more people would use it. In the past, people have said that they wanted better lighting but that hasn't happened yet. That will be one of the issues."

Open communication between the city and its residents is also part of the teacher's platform, as is opening the dialogue up between departments at city hall.

"Sometimes they don't connect all the time, and things fall through the cracks," he said.

Regarding the contentious issue surrounding geothermal heating for the downtown core, MacKenzie said isn't in favour of the project.

MacKenzie has previously run for MLA in three different ridings: Kam Lake in 1999; Great Slave in 2007; and Range Lake last year, but didn't win in any of them.

MacKenzie's Facebook page "Vote Beaton MacKenzie for City Council" is up and running and outlines his platform.

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