SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A potentially embarrassing defeat at the hands of a skeptical city council has been averted for a resolution near and dear to Mayor Mark Heyck.
City council voted 5-3 last week to approve a resolution to be heard at the Northwest Territories Association of Communities (NWTAC) annual general meeting May 9 to 12 in Hay River that calls on the territorial government to relax rules on local improvement charges municipalities can implement to make community improvements.
There is currently some doubt as to whether municipalities can offer individual homeowners low-interest loans that can be paid back through a local improvement charge. The charge is typically billed to the residents of entire neighbourhoods when major infrastructure work is required, such as in Northland Trailer Park where new water and sewer lines are needed.
Heyck, who first proposed the idea during last fall's municipal election, wants the city to be able to offer the loans to individual homeowners seeking to make energy retrofits to their homes. The idea is that residents, particularly in older homes, would be able to obtain the low-interest loans to pay for such expensive renovation projects as air ventilation systems or energy efficient windows, and then pay the cost off over a long period of time through a local improvement charge on their monthly tax bill.
The motion initially received a rough ride from council. However, some councillors argued allowing the city to make loans puts taxpayers' money at risk. Heyck was out of town during initial discussions, and one of the motion's proponents, city councillor Cory Vanthuyne, was serving as deputy mayor and could not vote except to break a tie.
But the tide has turned for Heyck's green retrofit scheme after Coun. Linda Bussey changed her mind and Vanthuyne is back voting on council.
"I was pleased to see the majority of council supporting that resolution going to the NWTAC," said Heyck.
"We are not in the process of developing a Yellowknife specific program, but simply looking for the NWTAC's assistance in lobbying the territorial government to make changes to legislation that would allow us to consider a program like that. So these are very early days."
Heyck said the motion would allow the city to put the idea out there to other municipalities to see if there is interest. This would be better than having research and consultation taking place from city administration, only to find out after that other municipalities aren't interested, he said.
Supporting the motion were Couns. Vanthuyne, Bussey, Dan Wong, Bob Brooks, and Rebecca Alty.
"Local improvement charges are not anything really extraordinarily new," said Vanthuyne, who pointed to some areas in Frame Lake South where they were applied during their construction, and more recently at Northland and Phase VII of Niven Lake. "We have used it in the past for water and sewer and paving and gutters."
Couns. Adrian Bell, Niels Konge and Phil Moon Son continue to oppose the motion.
"I believe there should have been a more vigorous debate regarding what shape this program would take before moving this resolution forward," said Bell.
"I believe what we are doing today is going to result in a change of legislation and that we are going to import some form of a program, whether or not it is wise. This is not a core service for a municipality."
The NWTAC will not reveal the resolutions it received for the upcoming meeting ahead of time. However, a spokesperson said there are five items on the agenda. Three of them are coming from Yellowknife, including proposals to regulate massage therapy services, and to review the territorial Property Assessment and Taxation Act and grants-in-lieu of property taxes policy.
Konge remained most strongly opposed. He said local improvement charges are OK for neighbourhood projects, but the city taking on loans for individual homeowners is risky.
"I think if we want to help people with energy efficiency, we as a council should be a little bit bolder than this and I think we should be supporting more pellet boilers and in our roadwork we should be putting in more lines to hook people up to a district heating system," he said. "There are lots of things that could help people out more than this program."
