Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
The Fort Simpson election has brought a new wave of members to the village council while still holding on to some of the old.

Mayor Sean Whelly was acclaimed during the election process this year. Whelly has a number of plans to better Fort Simpson and said he is excited to continue as mayor. - Miranda Scotland/NNSL photo

During his last term, the village managed to produce three balanced budgets and Whelly wants to continue the trend, he said. But the task could be more difficult with cost increases and the GNWT's plan to tighten its purse strings in order to avoid hitting its debt ceiling of $800 million.

"As we go ahead and we're looking at a very restrained budget, we're going to have to be innovative and open to new ideas," Whelly said, adding one idea might be to invest in green energy. "The last thing I want to do here in the village is increase property taxes and utility costs before I've found every efficiency that I can here and I still think that we can find more without seeing a drop in the level of service."

Whelly, who was first elected as mayor in 2009, took office again after he was acclaimed during the election process this year. Previously, he was given the title of mayor after he beat Duncan Canvin with 269 votes, more than three times the votes given to the incumbent.

Whelly is expected to serve as mayor of Fort Simpson until the next vote in 2015.

His focus was and continues to be quality of life issues. It's important to address the simple things, such as keeping the grass cut on the ball diamonds and removing snow from roads without blocking residents driveways with the white stuff, Whelly said.

He also wants to see the swimming pool completed on budget, more roads chipsealed, additional community beautification projects and upgrades to the sewage treatment plant finished on budget. The village will also continue to lobby the territorial government to fund an emergency rescue vehicle to be used on the highways, he said.

In his last term, Whelly was set on creating a tourism strategy for Fort Simpson but council wanted to focus on other areas of concern, he said. It's still an important area, he added, and he would like to revisit the subject with the new council.

Going forward, the village will continue to be aggressive in collecting overdue property taxes, said Whelly. Fort Simpson was owed nearly $600,000 in overdue taxes in 2011. Progress has been made since then, he added.

"There have been moves in that direction," said Whelly. "I would say that lawyers are acting on our behalf in some of those cases. In some of them we have made arrangements with the taxpayers and where they're meeting those arrangements any legal actions are being forestalled."

During his term, Whelly said he felt he accomplished a lot of what he set out to do and he plans to continue working to make the village a better place to live.

"I think people will see that things will get better, continue to get better. If I didn't think that I wouldn't have kept my name in, if I didn't think we could still continue to do well," he said.

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