SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Downtown revitalization took the centre stage during another round of late night budget deliberations as councillors pledged close to $1 million towards capital projects in the downtown core on Tuesday night.

Coun. Cory Vanthyune called out the territorial government for not funding the day shelter during as he decided to vote against a motion for the city to give the non-profit $50,000. - NNSL file photo

A total of $902,000 was added to the city's budget during the talks, which went until 11 p.m. for the second night in a row.

The most significant addition to the budget was the allocation of $750,000 for the repaving and streetscaping of a stretch of 50 Street between 51 and 52 Avenue.

Coun. Bob Brooks, who put forward a motion to add the project to the budget, originally intended to defer a portion of $2 million that has already been allocated for the repaving of 52 Avenue, in order to account for the $750,000.

However, Mayor Mark Heyck proposed an alternate option that would see work on both roads repaired to full capacity on 2014.

As councillors debated the merits of additional spending, SAO Dennis Kefalas addressed council, telling them that this was an opportunity to “put your money where your mouth is,” with regards to downtown revitalization.

The motion carried with Adrian Bell and Cory Vanthuyne voting against it.

Vanthuyne said he was happy to see that work was getting done but favoured Brook's original motion.

Aside from the additional costs of doing both projects at once, he expressed concerns that public works department would be overwhelmed with work next summer. He was also worried that having construction taking place on both 52 Avenue and a stretch of 50 Street would place a great deal of stress on commuters.

“We need to look at making progress, not perfection,” said Vanthuyne regarding downtown revalization.

After the meeting, Vanthuyne said he was entertaining the idea of bringing forward Brooks' motion to be voted on again.

Council also decided to allocated $50,000 worth of funding to the day shelter with the only vote against the motion, once again coming from Vanthuyne.

Vanthuyne said he supported the day shelter but believed funding it fell under the territorial government's mandate.

Coun. Adrian Bell agree that the territorial government is not meeting Yellowknife's needs when it comes to caring for the homeless, however he said that did not justify withholding money from the day shelter.

“We have to ask ourselves, as taxpayers, would you like us to sit around and lobby, lobby, lobby for another ten years or should we try to solve the problem while lobbying,” said Bell.

Coun. Rebecca Alty also pointed out that more than 60 per cent of people who responded to the citizen's budget tool were in favour of funding the shelter.

Aside from $36,000 for a citizen's survey and an additional $66,000, which was allocated for more trash cans and cigarette butt disposal units, council spent the rest of the night trying to trim the budget, by removing a total of $770,000 worth of capital expenditures.

The largest of those cuts came from slashing the harbour plan and smart growth development plan by $500,000 to $100,000, as well as cutting $170,000, which was slated to widen and pave the Niven Lake Trail.

“I'm curious to know where this idea came from because I don't suspect it came from Yellowknifers,” said Bell in reference to the paving of the trail. “I just don't see a need for this.”

As budget deliberations came to a close on Tuesday night, council had managed to cut a total of $353,569 from its $80.7 million capital budget.

That figure will likely change over the coming week as council will require at least one extra meeting to debate the budget.

Although no meeting has been scheduled, Dec. 9 has been suggested as a tentative date.

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