$417,000 slashed from budget
Process of cutting begins as councillors fight to keep taxes low
Cody Punter
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, December 4, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
City council burned the midnight oil at city hall Monday night as it began the process of whittling down administration's proposed $80.7-million budget.
During a line-by-line reading of the budget, which lasted more than five hours, councillors were able to cut $417,000 from nearly $24 million worth of proposed capital projects.
One of the points that was continually raised throughout the evening was that administration did not offer sufficient justification for some of the items it desired.
Nowhere was this more apparent than during a debate on the proposed $235,000 upgrade of Tin Can Hill trails.
During those discussions, Coun. Linda Bussey pointed out that public consultations indicated residents were against upgrading the trails.
"We just heard (from the public) that people don't want us to touch the trail. So why would we think about investing so much money when the public has (spoken)," said Bussey.
Coun. Niels Konge's subsequent motion to cut the project entirely found little support. However, every councillor except for Konge voted in favour of a motion put forward by Coun. Cory Vanthuyne to reduce funding for the project by $135,000.
Council proceeded to cut several other large capital projects, which it deemed nonessential, including a $90,000 community energy plan and a $75,000 lands database.
While debating the community energy plan, Coun. Cory Vanthuyne argued that the city allocates too much money for planning and not enough toward tangible projects.
"If we had a project like a new boiler, we wouldn't need a community energy plan," he said.
Some $50,000 was also cut from municipal enforcement's capital budget. Councillors argued an increase is premature because municipal enforcement is undergoing a departmental review.
Several councillors also suggested cutting $75,000 in funding allocated to landscaping at the Fieldhouse.
Coun. Rebecca Alty, who uses the Fieldhouse regularly, argued the work would take up valuable parking space, which is especially hard to find in winter time.
However, the motion was defeated after Coun. Bob Brooks pointed out that the city's development bylaws include a mandatory landscaping component for developers, which, in this instance, is the city.
"How can we ask the public and developers to abide by a bylaw that the city doesn't abide by," said Brooks.
Konge, who agreed with Alty, was disappointed by the decision.
"At some point we need to ask ourselves if our bylaws make any sense," argued Konge in protest.
With discussions of each budget item going into so much depth, city administration anticipated scheduling a special committee meeting on Saturday at 9 a.m.
Coun. Adrian Bell cautioned that it is important for council to scrutinize each item in the budget regardless of how many items have been cut by the midway point of deliberations.
"It's important to not get distracted by that and to proceed by the same principles, which for me is: are these projects in line with Yellowknifers objectives and are they the most cost effective way to achieve these goals."
Budget deliberations were also scheduled to continue at city hall on Tuesday night.
